My Little Girl

Once upon a time, not too long ago, I held you in my arms for the very first time and wept with joy. On March 4th, 2012 you changed my life forever. Nothing has been the same since, but I've been blessed because of it. As I reflect back at my life, you came into it when I needed you most and I know Heavenly Father was aware of it. He knew mommy needed a best friend, someone to remind mommy to come back on His course, and someone to cheer me up; you've been exactly that and much more! You've only turned 4, but you're helping me reach my full potential. I can't believe someone so little can have that much of an impact on my life, but I couldn't be more grateful. You remind me of Heavenly Father's great plan for us. I know that's my goal, to nurture and teach you to know of Him and remember Him, so you can return back to His presence. I'm amazed at how much you know about the gospel and of the Book of Mormon. You know your Articles of Faith 1-4 and even though you give me a hard time about it, you enjoy being a Sunbeam and in primary. I love hearing your teachers and primary leaders tell me how much fun you are and that you're obedient. I love how excited you are to be baptized. Even though you still have a few years before you are, I'm glad to know you have a desire to obey Heavenly Father and become a member of His church. I love your desire to want to go to the temple. I'm excited for the future where we can go there often and partake of ordinances to bless the lives of others and your own. You make mommy proud! I know you have a great mission here in this life and I hope I may be able to influence you to fulfill all that our Heavenly Father has in store for you. 

Tina, you are full of life. I'm in love with your bubbly, spunky and funny personality. You know how to put a smile on my face and you easily have me laughing my stressful days a way. Your smile and laugh are contagious and it's something mommy needs to do more often. Some days you can drive mommy crazy, but I know it's not your intent. You're teaching mommy to be patient and understanding. I'm grateful for your understanding and patience with mommy. You probably teach me more than I teach you. I love watching you play. I'm impressed at how well you play by yourself. You have a great imagination. You love coloring, drawing, and painting. You love to play with makeup. I love watching you care for your baby dolls, play dress up, and build things. You love to tell knock knock jokes, jump out and scare us, and play pretend. You love putting dance shows for us. You love music; you're either dancing, playing drums on your toys, playing the piano, or singing your little heart out. You will make a great performer because you love to entertain and you're not shy like mommy. You love going to the park and swimming. I think those are two of your favorite activities to do because you constantly ask me to do one of them. You know the alphabet song, your numbers 1-20 and some, your Tongan numbers 1-10, and a few Tongan words. You know your colors, recognize a few letters of the alphabet, and you know how to write your first and last name. You're a bright and intelligent little girl, I know you'll do well in school. You love going to preschool, some days more than others. You love telling people hi and making friends. You're not afraid to make friends, and I know you'll make many. You also love spending time with your cousins. You call them your own brothers and sisters. You want to be a big sister and it's a dream of yours. Someday, hopefully sooner or later your prayers will be answered. You love playing basketball, soccer, and softball. One of my favorite things to do with you is playing these different sports with you. You always give yourself hard time especially when you make a mistake because I know you just want to be great. I'm glad to see that you have that desire so you can always strive for progress. Practice makes perfect and never forget to just have fun. You always want to go to the gym with mommy and I look forward for when your old enough where you can. I'm excited for all the fun things we'll do together in the future. One of my favorite things to do with you is just talk. You can talk my ear off sometimes. I love when it's time for bed, you cuddle up next to me. You love holding my hand while you sleep and you love to tell stories. I just love everything about you. This list can go on, but everything is cherished in mommy's heart. I learn so much about you everyday and I also learn so much about myself. Thank you for blessing my life Tina, mommy loves you!

1st Blog Post of 2016

Just finished my last few assignments that are due at midnight. I thought I'd blog for a little before hittin' the sack for church tomorrow morning. Tina fell asleep around 8 which made homework go by a little quicker. Lol. So, idk where to start because there's so much that has happened the past few weeks or months. Since I was on the school topic...It's always such a huge relief when I finish homework for the week. So, Christmas break is over and it was a nice break, but not long enough. I've started up another semester and this time I'm taking on full-time student status. Its been a little overwhelming, but it's nothing impossible. Just some patience & persistence is key. Last semester, I took 9 credits all which I passed, thank goodness. 2 A's & 1 B. This semester I've added 5 more credits and 2 more classes than the last. I've created a grad plan and I'm looking forward to graduating summer of 2017 with my BS in Marriage and Family Studies. After that, I'd like to continue my education by attending the University of Utah to receive my MSW, which I hear is only a 1 year program. I'd like to work as a Counselor or with Foster Care. I want to put my degree to work to help support my family. Once Tina starts elementary (which is next fall), I want to start working part-time while finishing grad school. A lot of the material I've learned for my major has aided me with my own personal life as well, which is a plus. It's exactly why I decided to pursue this major because I strive everyday to perfect my role as a wife and mother in my home. I am also a firm believer of how important family and marital relationships are in today's world. Everything we are and become usually is rooted back to family life, whether it be negative or positive. I want to help families construct a firm foundation of building strong marriage relationships that will benefit children in the home greatly, or, help families break negative cycles that are harming future generations. While I'm working on this degree, it's actually been quite handy.

Now, I want to back track a little and talk about the holidays and new year goals...

Christmas 2015

I think I have some pictures posted on my IG account, but I think I want to talk about some new traditions I brought to our little family. I've never been a really huge fan of Christmas being about exchanging gifts or Santa. I didn't grow up with a lot of gifts anyways during Christmas time or know of Santa and it was something I kind of wanted to carry out in my family. Tina being the very smart and observant girl that she is asked me this year if Santa was real. Being too young previous years, she's never asked me about Santa, but has only pointed him out. Of course, from T.V or because she learned it from other kids. This past Christmas, I think she was talking about Santa one day and she still kind of does, but I remember asking her, I think, if she believed in Santa. She replied that she did and that he gives gifts to everyone. I then asked her where she learned it from and she responded that she learned it from TV. Her current television shows being Disney Jr. shows, Peppa pig,and vlogs on YouTube. I think she also mentioned that she couldn't wait for Santa to bring her gifts. Before Tina was born, John and I agreed that we didn't want to make stories up of Santa or the Easter bunny. It just wasn't our thing because we wanted Tina to be obedient to us and not because of Santa. I don't like bribing Tina and I use things we learn from her scripture stories. She knows about Nephi, the Tree of life, King Noah, etc. and she knows what being obedient is and what isn't. I use the scripture stories we learn about to help motivate her to be good, which actually works. We also like the idea of her knowing that her gifts come from us because daddy works hard and because we love her. That's exactly what we told her again this year. I loved when she thanked us and expressed her gratitude for the gifts we got her. 

I also bought a 25 days of Christ kit. The 25 days leading up to Christmas I had Tina hang an ornament on our tree representing the things we learned about Jesus' life. We read stories and watched videos about our Savior each day. Sometimes we missed a night and we had more ornaments to hang on some days more than others. The idea is for us to remember Christ. This year more than past years, Tina has been talking a lot about what she wanted for Christmas and again being that I don't like that idea of exchanging gifts on Christmas, I found the 25 days of Christ idea online. Tina enjoyed opening the ornaments and learning about the Savior. I learned a lot too. I'm excited to carry it out as a tradition our family will do every year.

John and I bought gifts the first two years we were married and after that I expressed to him how I didn't like it. We usually spend money on things we actually need through out the year anyways.  Since then we haven't bought anything for each other. I'd rather just spend time with him and with Tina. We've gone on more dates the last few months of last year more than we ever have in the past 5 years we've been married. John on the other hand decided to buy his own gift this year. Lol. Who does that right? I was upset, but overlooked it to keep the Christmas spirit alive in me. Lol. Upset not because he bought his own gift, but the amount of money spent on it especially considering our financial issues and ours goals. Anyways, I still kind of give him a hard time about it, but I guess what's done is done. This past year, I thought about gifts we could give to our families that would help draw their families together in spending more quality time. The idea of board games came to mind. I also decided to do 12 days of Christmas. A few weeks prior to choosing our family, we decided to pray about a certain family or individual that could use the Christmas Spirit or that might be needy. We found a family in our ward and on the 13th we began our 1st day of Christmas. I looked up different ideas on pinterest and found tons. I'm excited to continue this tradition as Tina gets older. Before we started the idea we had FHE where I explained to her how their are a lot of children and families that need things. I explained her the difference between a want and a need and expressed how like the Savior we can be giving. It was a neat experience, I did most of the running, but I know it'll be something Tina will grasp more and enjoy more as she gets older. 

We enjoyed Christmas together as a little family and with both of our families. I look forward for Christmas 2016.

It's a New Year

We spent New Year's Eve with my family playing different games. My parents were down for two weeks, which made this past year's and the new year holiday even more pleasant. This year has already hit off with a great start. My family and I have been living in John's grandmother's basement for the past year and a half year and for the past few months we've been looking into getting into our very own house. We haven't been able to save much because we've been trying to pay off debt and pay rent. It's been difficult at times, but we've managed. I've been on top of our spending and trying to live on a budget. The only hard thing is trying to live on a budget when someone else is doing more spending on their own. We won't mention any names though. Lol. We have to make certain sacrifices to reap the larger reward and that's accomplishing our goal. So, to this year's goal: finding our own home & giving Tina what she's been and continues to ask for, a sibling.  Lol. At the end of the day, it's in God's hands.

More personal goals: stay in school & get good grades, stay physically and spiritually healthy & fit, attend the temple weekly, strive to do and be better in all I do and say, especially my roles as a wife and mom, study and ponder the scriptures daily, and to be more charitable. I'm also considering entering my very first power lifting meet this year. I'm planning on March, but we'll see how it plays out with school and family life. I need to keep my priorities in check sometimes or else life becomes more stressful than enjoyable.

Cheers, to a great new year. 2016 is going to be a great one!