January Family Updates

January felt like such a long month! 
Let's start with an update on our family members :)


LEILA & SEFA

It has been so fun watching these two grow as they attend school, dance practice, and Ward stuff (activity days and cub scouts). 

Leila loves going to activity days, especially the crafts and fun activities. She's looking forward to the Daddy Daughter Dance coming up next. 

They love riding their bikes outside and are awesome examples to their younger siblings. 

They both are improving with dance, but Sefa's paoti has really surprised us the most. He's so good! They are gearing up for their fundraiser coming up. Hopefully I get some footage of them.



VIIGA & SALEIMA


These two.....what to say about these two.....hmmm....they are quite the duo. They test our patience every day! They are the cutest best frenemies who can be super willing and helpful with home chores or sneaky and irritz lol. They crack us up every day.

They both went to the dentist for the first time this month lol. Viiga was an amazing patient, but Saleima was unsure and a bit stubborn. They both love going to primary, which is surprising because Saleima had such a hard time going to nursery.


METULI

January was really Metuli's month! She hit so many milestones in one month.
This cutie celebrated her 1st Birthday! Woohoo!! You can read her birthday post here.
She took her first steps just a week before her birthday.
She also popped out her first tooth and is working on her second one.

She loves walking around the house and exploring everything. She follows her siblings wherever they go. She's climbed the stairs several times and might have tumbled down once. She loves to eat and grabs at everything when we are feeding her table food. She's learned how to climb on and off our bed.

She is still so light (maybe 20 lbs now?) which makes it a breeze to carry her around sometimes.



ALJAY & SANDRA

 Career wise- Aljay has had a steady pace of orders and commissioned pieces. He's planning out his next show and we're looking for a venue to host it. I've applied for an Assistant Director position in the Multicultural Student Services department and will hear back about it in a few days. Kind of nervous about it, but I wouldn't be sad if I didn't get it.

Update>>> I didn't get the job. I was bummed for about 2 seconds and then felt completely ok and almost relieved that I didn't get it. There's another job that I've got my eye on.

Health- We are still surviving lol Aljay's been so helpful in helping us both eat healthier. He's been helping me by cooking with more veggies and making low carb meals. He knows that I've been down on myself because of my weight and so he's been good about helping me stay focused on my goals. That will be another post.


FAMIY NEWS

We received unfortunate news of Nina's Dad's passing and were so sad that we couldn't go to the funeral. It's times like these where Aljay and I wish we were rich so we could just fly over and help out in whatever way we can. We missed Aunty Sese's funeral last year and couldn't be there for Uncle Fata's funeral this year. My heart was so sad for Nina and her siblings, but I imagine the reunion must be so wonderful and long awaited.

Aljay's Mom was able to attend the funeral. After the funeral she flew out here to Utah to spend a few days with us. It was such a treat to have her here (a thousand thanks to Brit for making it happen).  The kids loooooooved having Grandma here. She made sure they said their personal prayers every day and cleaned their room and helped them get ready for everything, which allowed Aljay to work on his projects during the day time. And did all our laundry and let Aljay and I go on a date night....*cue the tears* waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa come back MOM!!!! hahahahaha

Mom was also able to see all her siblings and spend time with them. It was a short sweet trip for her and now back to life and responsibilities.


Oh and I promise I'll come back and post pics once I have more time.

This is a super quick update so far. More to come reaaalll soon.






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