Summer Time!

Benjamin Tangi Tatafu, 9 months

Benji and I on a break on our drive to Wyoming

This summer has flown by for us. We had Jana and her kids out in Utah twice and we took a short trip to Wyoming with the Harward family. Benji has been growing and changing like crazy. He can now do 6 signs (when he feels like it, not when I feel like it, sadly!) milk, water, eat/food, more, fan, and all done. He also waves, dances, crawls really fast, pulls himself up on everything, cruises, and constantly makes a "huh/hmm?" sound. He is 10 months already and I can't believe that a year ago today I had already had a baby shower and was preparing for Benjamin to come, while being insanely uncomfortable at night. He has been such a blessing in our lives. Here are some pictures of our summer so far. I have finally got my internet issue with my computer fixed so hopefully I will finally be able to upload many more pics.

Benji & Daddy being silly

Old Faithful with Grandpa Folau

A grizzly in Wyoming

Benji at the Logan Zoo checkin out a Tortoise

Daddy and Benji

Life is too short

My dad has been really sick lately. He is often in lots of pain and nauseated or dizzy. He has been to the ER two times because his pancreas is not working right. The doctors said he either has chronic pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer. We don't know which yet. If it is just pancreatitis, he will probably need to have some or all of it removed and become diabetic, but the other option is far worse. Pancreatic cancer is one of the worst cancers because you don't usually feel anything until its much too late and cancer has spread. My sisters and my parents both think he only has a matter of time, though I choose to think that he does unless we're told otherwise.

This whole situation has had all of us reflecting on my dad and all he's done for us, and everyone around him. My dad is the most hard working, selfless person I know. He fixes cars for his family, builds houses to shelter them, lends them money interest free when they are in a tough spot financially, gives great advice, fixes everyones computers, does carpeting for people in the ward, and jumps up and gets to work whenever someone needs some help. He is a wonderful husband, father, and grandfather to us all. The kids can't get enough of "Papa". Benji always has a smile ready for him, and his first real chuckle was at Papa.

I had my dad and mom start a list of things they are going to do whether or not my dad has cancer. Saving for retirement is all well and good, but what if something happens and you don't make it to retirement age? Money is not only meant to be saved, it is also meant to be spent. You can't take money to the other side, and no one there cares just how much you had or made, but you can take, and keep forever, the memories you made. Some things we came up with are; renting a houseboat on Lake Powell with the family, Hawaii with the family, and Alaskan cruise without the family, and they are thinking of seeing the small island my dad lived on for part of his mission in Japan that my dad reminisces about every so often.

Keep us in your prayers, please. :)
Here are some pictures from the last month since I know can get my huge pics onto the internet.

Fun in the Sun! Benjamin's 1st Trip

For spring break we went with the Daffern side of the family down to Anaheim for a week and did 4 crazy days of Disneyland and Cali Adventure. He was such a good baby! He only cried when he needed a diaper change or to eat, and he smiled constantly. He only went on two rides, cause most of the time he was sleepin in the stroller so we didn't want to take him out. He went on the Pirates ride and a toy story ride. He seemed to like them, he stared around with huge eyes taking in all the colors at least. So cute! He just loved his cousins Maddy and Caden. He stared and smiled and laughed at them anytime they turned their attention on him, which was A LOT. Those two always wanted to play with him, my favorite questions were "Can I pet your baby?" -Caden or "Can I hold Bean?" -Maddy at Disneyland standing in a line.The kids had a lot of fun there and us adults did too! I can't remember if it was once or twice we left the kids to go to bed with grandma and grandpa to babysit and went to the parks by ourselves in the evening to ride the thrill rides. I love when we get to spend time with Jana and Lee because as a couple they are a great match for us. It's really too bad for us that they live so stinkin far away! At least we have Nick and Liberty here, they are the same way. It's nice to have a couple on each side of the family that we have so much in common with. Anyway, it was sad to say goodbye to the Gardner's but we are glad we had the opportunity to spend so much time with them! Here are some cute pics from one of my cameras!

Benjamin tries Bananas!

So when I was pregnant, I came across these little mesh feeder things that I decided would be fun to try. I finally got to buy one last week and Benjamin loves it! He's had an apple and now a banana in it. Here is how it works, it has a handle for holding and a mesh bag that you put fresh food in, the holes in the mesh strain the food so that the baby can get juice and tiny amounts of food from it while they learn chewing and swallowing food. Here is a cute shot of him eating a Nana!

Women Who Do it All

So I am a new follower of several awesome craft blogs. LOVE them and all their cute new ideas. It doesn't hurt that they have awesome giveaways to followers every so often either! This new blog I have joined is called Women Who Do It All and she is having three giveaways, (A Cricut, a way cute toe ring, and a JC Penny's Potrait session)! Go on over and check her out HERE!

February 2010 Update

  So everytime I finally make another entry, I say I am going to get better at blogging. One of my problems is I'm not sure anyone is even reading....is there anyone out there?!

  I had Benjamin Tangi Tatafu, our son, on October 20th, 2009. He is four months old now and the most fun I've ever had. He loves playing with his fingers and his feet and anything he can get his hands on. He smiles a ton, laughs a little (he doesn't do it too much cause it gives him hiccups, which he seems to hate) and loves a lot. We can't get enough of this kid. He has mommy and daddy wrapped around each of his little fingers and toes. Daddy works from home now, as a freelance artist, so he gets mommy and daddy to tend to him 24-7. What spoiled baby!
 
  Mitch and I have started a business called Tatafu Arts, but haven't had time yet to advertise or find projects because he has so much work coming in from his former employer Seek Mobile Interactive. However, he does still have time for smaller projects like logos, business cards, etc. So if you know anyone who needs these types of things, please contact us. The website is still in the making, so when it is finished I will be posting a link.

  I recently decided to take up crafting, so for my birthday I got a ton of scrapbook paper and supplies. I have only done one small paper project so far but it was really fun! I also got a Sillhouette Sd, which is a vinyl cutter, and have been using that to make crafts too, when the baby permits it.

 I built myself a new computer last week. Who knew it was so easy?! I love it. Except for a few problems with the internet connection, which hopefully will be fixed as we get fiber to the home here in the next few weeks, it is amazingly fast. I put a super fast DVD burner in it, a multi-card reader, and made sure it had a firewire port for the video camera. I am going to use it to do media editing and such for both business and personal purposes. Eventually, I would like to get a 1080p video camera and a Blu-Ray burner for my PC. Because of the internet problems, I am unable to post any pictures but as soon as it is fixed I will do so.

  For my next project I am going to take the first letters of our names and use paper to decorate them and hang them in our family room. At first I was going to go with coordinated paper colors but now I think I will make them individual like us. I have seen a few crafts out there with uncoordinated paper on them and they still looked good. Here goes nothin... :)

So obviously I'm not so good at this...

I haven't posted since we found out we were pregnant and we got our calling... wow! I am now nearly 34 weeks pregnant with our baby boy, Benjamin Tangi, and we have been having an amazing year!

Our 9 year olds primary class proves to be a challenge weekly, not because of the children, who are all at the age where they want to be heard, but because of lesson planning. Lol. Late Saturday night or early Sunday morning lesson planning has become our thing. It's terrible I know, but with the house work going on and all the crazy little tasks in between, like getting ready for Ben's arrival, and attending family gatherings, it's really hard to do the lesson earlier. I don't feel too badly about it though, because we get the underlying purpose through to them. They are such a joy to teach and make every Sunday more interesting for us than it would be without them.

I have tons of pictures that are needing to be put up and the upstairs of the house is very nearly finished, with just the kitchen floor to be completed and countertops to be added to the already installed cabinets.

I will for sure try and do better when Benjamin shows up, especially so my family in other states can see him and read about him lots.