I am so happy to be writing this blog. I got the opportunity to be an assistant coach this year at Standley Lake for gymnastics. I have never had so much fun. It took alot of time and my family really didn't have a mom around. So it was an adjustment. But worth every minute. I am so thankful that I was able to make it all work and to be able to coach for a high school team.
The weather for Halloween this year was so nice. I wore only a sweatshirt around all night trick or treating. What a treat. The kids like normal had there Halloween parties at school. I was at Regionals with my high school girls so I was not able to attend. I have never missed a school anything so this was a little tough for me, but I couldn't be in 2 places at once. Marcus was able to get off work early and go and fill in for the both of us. He also had to do the ward Halloween party later that night alone too. By the time I got home he had no problem telling me that he does not want my job. All I could do was laugh. It was so good for the kids to have him and to be able to share that time together without mom.
This year we have been able to make it to 2 of Michael's games. ( I have only made it to one). Marcus was able to take the kids to the Air Force game in Laramie and we also went to watch the the Wyo take on the Utes. The kids love going and cheering on Michael. Everyone calls him Mike so the kids think it's so funny and they are always yelling, "it's uncle Micheal". Gotta love them. We love going to his games, if I could make it work we would go to all of them.
Lafai will sleep anywhere. He made himself a bed.
We were so lucky to have our friend come and ask us if we wanted 2 tickets to the Broncos game. Not only were they given to us but the seats were six rows from the north tunnel. They were so close. It was such a cool experience to be that close. I am always cheering for my home team (Broncos) no matter what. Marcus on the other hand loves to cheer on Troy Polomalu and the rest of the Steelers. Now don't get me wrong he loves his Broncos, he just HATES our coach, Josh McDaniels. So of course he once again wore his Polomalu jersey to the game. I say it everytime. If any of you need some entertanment just go with Marcus. It is so funny. Marcus once again had his picture taken, there was a girl that even came up and touched his hair. People are crazy out there. But they sure make us laugh. We had so much fun. It's always nice to get away and have a date with my husband. And no better place than a football game. I even loved it so much, I'm trying to find tickets to the Colts game in a couple of weeks. I should say I hate the colts, I am not a manning fan at all!!
I wanted to get these up right away but the week was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. With out going into too much detail, Lafai has struggled his first week of school as a Kindergartner. So that would lead me to say that I have too had a hard week. I would have never of guessed that things I struggle with in my life would come back at a time like this, but than again why wouldn't they. I guess I am suppose to learn something from this. So here I am taking it on and doing my best to make sure I learn from this experience and grow from it. Lafai is now on the 6th day of school. He still cries in the morning for my not to take him. He was able to walk with his sisters into the school even though with every step he turned around looking at me crying. What I should say that makes me the most sad now is that he tries so hard to be a big boy and not cry and even when he does he still looks at me with the "save me mom" look. I know as each day goes on he will get better and better and soon he will forget wanting me and I will be the one begging for him to hang out with me. I think about my nephew Issac who is in 5th grade and how my sister said he walked ahead of his mom and his sister. I guess that is where we will be one day. :)
Lilliana is in the 5th grade. This is our first year with a male teacher. She wanted Mr. Wilensky so bad. I guess she got her wish. It was a shock to my when we went to open house and her teacher was telling Marcus and I about sex ed. I forgot that happens in 5th grade. Am I ready for this? Well if not, I have no choice. I know Lilli will do great. I can't believe how grown up she is getting.
Leilani is now in the 3rd grade. Although if you see her you would think she is in 5th grade. She is getting to be so tall and weights almost 90 lbs. She is so beautiful. I love her curls. We hope this year will help bring some answers in why she struggles in school. Hopefully the tests will go good and we can start to help her more.
I sit here at hime with no kids with me. It is very wierd. I do miss them. I am too used to having someone home with me. I give Marcus a hard time that I am ready for another baby. (no I'm not announcing anything) I have just wanted another baby these past couple of years. So who know what the future holds but for now I will enjoy volenteering in all three classrooms.
So I know it has been along time since I have blogged but Hopefully I can do one or two through out the next few days to catch up.
But most important my Lilli made it to state gymnastics this year for the first time. She had the best meet at Regionals a couple of weeks ago taking 1st in the all around. She was so excited. For the last 2 weeks she has been busy at practice getting ready for state. What she didn't realize was how nervous she was really going to be. I tried to help her stay cool but in warm ups she crashed on vault and that seemed to mess with her head, as it usually does. I got her to get back up and keep going. When the competition started she was on vault first and did awesome. She scored an 8.3. Beam was next. Lilli is great on the beam, this day was not it. She fell 3 times. Lilli never falls. By the second fall she kept looking at me through out the routine and the final fall she looked at me with tears in her eyes. As a mom it is really hard to watch this. As for myself who did gymnastics I can really understand her pain and disappointment. I wanted to cry too. She had a hard time getting it together so I had to leave the floor and go sit in the stands for awhile so that the other coaches could get her to pick herself up and move forward. By bars she made her kip but fell on the squat on (has never fallen on bars before). But she was ok. She was ready for floor. She had a great routine but wasn't straight on the backhand spring and the back extension wasn't with straight arms. The judges creamed her for that. She scored an 8.15 and 8.4. (in regionals she got a 9.4). So the tears came back. I did have to get a little stern with her about sucking it up and moving forward. (isn't that what mom's are for, especially if they also are there coaches). Finally in the end Lilli took 4th on the vault. She received the medal she wanted. And I should say she did apologize to me for saying earlier that morning that" u only had took the gold medal for the all around one year, what could I tell her that would help"? I hoped she learned how hard it really is. I love her tons and was so proud of her. I can't wait to see what next year brings.
Isaac, Marina and Lilli
Lilli had lots of family there to cheer her on. Daddy, Leilani, Lafai, Vycci, Danny, Issac, Marina, Esaias, Ginette, Naia, Tayvin, Mamo, Terry, John, Nancy, Jack, and grandma Rolayne
A few weeks ago, Marcus's aunti Leila and cousin Ho'onani from Hawaii came into town for a volleyball tournament that at the convention center. So for Saturday and Sunday we lived at the convention center watching volleyball. We had a blast. Between Ginette, Ariane and myself we had lots of food and snacks, we played volleyball on a empty court, we laughed and even yelled cheering for the North Shore girls. I enjoy this time so much that we are able to spend with family. It was so good to see Aunti Leila and Ho'onani. It had been a few years since the last time we saw them.
Last night Marcus and I had the chance to attend the temple last night. We were able to go with our friends the Rosas's and get dinner with them. (the Bennett's were running a little behind so they didn't make it to our sealing session). I want to express how grateful I am for the temple and for the chance I had to go with my husband. At one point in the past few months I wasn't sure when I would be able to attend with my husband. But as we were driving to the temple and turned the corner and I saw the temple I was filled with the spirit. I had so much emotions it was hard to hold it back. I told Marcus how grateful I was for us to be able to be there together. I love my husband and am so blessed to have him in my life and for the blessings the Lord has given us especially in the past few months.
I can't believe I hadn't done a post since the beginning of November. Well actually if I really thought about it, I should just know that I would have to stay up really late in December to really have the time to do my blog in December. Ahhh.. these past few months have been quite busy and a little rough. I am glad I have made it through all of it. As for December and all the birthdays we survived. It felt extra crazy this year, not sure why but it just means I will have to make sure I am more organized for this year birthday season. I have a friend who also has three kids birthdays all with in a week of each other at the end of November and beginning of December. At first I thought I could never handle 3 bithdays all within one week, but Marcus and I were talking about how that would be great because we could be all done in one week instead of a whole month of birthdays and Christmas. It's almost like a week in between the kids is too much cause I get caught up in thinking they all need parties and special stuff, so that means every weekend there is something going on for each kid. I just don't want the kids to feel like they got shafted. Marcus says I do a lot so he doesn't think they could ever feel that way. That means he thinks I do too much for them. Lol. He just wants me not to get so stressed out. We already started to come up with a plan of no extra stuff outside of family stuff that we can plan for. We are just too busy. If something comes up and we feel like we can do it, then we will decide on it then but for now, we will take December one step at a time. So as we went through birthdays and xmas and getting over the holidays blogging sure wasn't something I was really wanting to do. I am glad that I am now able to say I have got caught up. So as you read this just know there is about 5 or so more post that I did before this one. I decided to wrote a little more than I was going to but we have been doing family home evening with the Purcell side every other Monday. And Ginette just did one on keeping a journal. She talked about those of us who blog use it as a journal too. So I figured with this one, I would write about how crazy life got these past few months and how December was crazy so that way I could look back and hopefully do things a little different. I have yet to pick up a pen and really write in my journal so this is as good as it gets right now. I don't know now why it is so hard to pick up a pen and start writing? I used to keep a journal when I was younger but I always wrote about bad things instead of good things. So you would think that I would want to start writing about the good things in my life now. Who knows. I guess it should make it my goal to start writing in a hand writin journal with in the next few weeks. We shall see how that goes. I hope you all enjoy getting caught up on whats been going on in my life the last few months.
About 8 years ago we became friends with the Bennett's. We have had such a close friendship with them for so many years. We have done so many family activities together. But it wasn't until a few years ago we had come up with an idea of going away together with no kids. Mindi's family has the most beautiful cabin in Grandby. So her parents have been so kind to have let us use this cabin to get away. So we got to plan this with also another couple. the Law's, who had moved into the ward that we have become such good friends with. We get to go up from Friday thru Sunday. The first year we did night sledding. A little scary because you couldn't see where you were going and someone had to be at the bottom of the hill telling you to "bail" off the sled before you hit the road. So trying to get off your sled when you are at top speeds is not easy and sure doesn't feel good when you hit the snow. But definitely funny. During the day the other couples went skiing together (which Marcus and I have no desire to do, we are not into snow or the cold weather for that long. We will stick to the water sports in the summer time). So Marcus and I went into Grand Lake to spend the day together. It was so great. So the time came for another couples retreat. We went up this past weekend. My mom was able to stay with the kids and dogs and held down the fort. We got to leave at 2pm on Friday afternoon, we got up there just after 4. This year the Bennett's brought up another couple along with ourselves and the Laws. Oh and I can't forget that Ruby who is a baby got to come to because she is to little to leave. She had it made, there were 8 adults to give her attention and to hold her all the time. We loved having her there. On Saturday a few of the others went skiing and the rest of us just hung out at the cabin doing nothing. It was wonderful. After they were all done skiing we all meet up for lunch at the famous Mad Munchies in town. We got there for lunch every time we go to Grandby. Then we got to go back to the cabin and play. Adam brought up his 2 4 wheelers. So we went sledding and pulled each other behind them in tubes. We played for a couple of hours. It was a blast. It was like being a kid again. I haven't had that much fun in the snow in a long time. After we were all beaten up and worn out we went back to the cabin and got ready for traditional fondue dinner.( we always do fondue together as couples/family). Our bishop and his wife do ski patrol on the slope right by the cabin every weekend, so they came over for dinner before they headed down back to Denver. I have never eaten so much. I was so full I was sick. And that was before we attempted to eat this cake Mindi made for Liesl and Adams birthdays, which Liesl's was on Sat and Adam's is on Mon. Overall it was a relaxing and some well needed time with Marcus. It is such a good reminder to stop and take time away with your husband. You need it. I know we sure did. We had a blast and can't wait until next year.
This was Lafai's second season of wrestling. He did so good this year. Considering that last year he cried for the first half of the season. This year he was ready to go. He practiced every Tuesday and Thursday night and had tournaments every Saturday. Marcus helps coach the team. So it was good because he can be down on the mat with Fai. Fai only lost a few times and was only pinned once. One of those loses was in the District Tournament which knocked him out of Regionals. So he went on to the JV Tournament the next week where he took first pinning the kid in the Championship round in 17 seconds. He was so happy. He won a trophey for taking first. He carried that thing around to show everyone for 2 weeks. We were such proud parents.
Our Christmas celebrations started on the 20th. We got to go to Granndma and Grandpa Mortensen's house for dinner and gifts. We always enjoy going over there for the holidays. I have said it for the last few years and that is how grateful I am that I still have my grandparents around and for my own children to have their great greatparents around. We are blessed to have the time with them that we get to have. So then Marcus and I hosted xmas eve. We made London Broil, baked potatos, cowboy chili and so much more. It was so good. Then it was time to do presents and just enjoy being with family and celebrating the true meaning of xmas.
Grandpa won the adult candy guessing game
Leilani won the kids candy guessing game
Davis's first Christmas
Tristan and Lafai. Hanging out on xmas eve
Early this year when I realized I had another child who would be getting baptized I almost cried. I couldn't imagine Leilani being baptized. I couldn't believe she was that old. When we were trying to figure out when to have her baptized we realized Marcus's sister Yannick would be in town for Christmas and also Michael would be home from college. So as crazy as it sounds we had her baptism the day after Christmas. It was a little crazy to make it all work. We had provided food for everyone to eat dinner before or after which ever worked best for each family. The baptism itself was beautiful. Marcus of course baptized her. Her aunti Yannick and uncle Michael gave the talks for her. Her aunti Mara played the piano for us which was so nice. I am truely grateful for everyone who was able to come. Leilani is so blessed to have so many people who love her and care for her.
The "baby" has turned 5. Well I know he isin't a baby anymore but he is my baby. This year Lafai got to have his own friend/family party for the first time. We decorated in Pirate stuff. He kept saying how cool everything was. It ended up being a longer party than we thought because Marcus's little brother Michael who plays for the Wyoming Cowboys were in the New Mexico bowl that evening and so the party went on hold when a guy on the team was hurt and Michael went in. Lafai was opening his gifts and everyone started screaming and yelling because he went in and they focused in on him talking about being a true freshman and playing in such a great game. Poor Lafai couldn't open his gifts until the game was over. (and the game went into overtime and Wyoming won!!!) But in the end Lafai had a great 
birthday.
