Four years

How did she go from this:

to this:
so darn FAST! Before you have kids you hear people say how fast it all goes by, and of course, not ever having experienced it, you kind of nod and say "yeah." But when your own baby starts growing up, it is exciting and a little heartbreaking at the same time.

Mallina's birth was one of the hardest days of my life. It was LONG and hard and she had some troubles as she was being born. I was so glad that it was OVER. I passed out from the drugs I begged for afterward and didn't see my little baby for a few hours. When I woke up Ieli was sitting over on the couch holding his new baby girl. It was the sweetest sight I've ever seen. She is a very determined little girl and has a temper that rivals mine, but I absolutely ADORE her. She makes me laugh everyday and I love to look at her, hug her, give her kisses, brush her hair (now that she actually has some!), read stories to her and watch her play. I am truly blessed to have Mallina Kay be my daughter.

This year I thought I would post/re-post some of her sillier moments. Enjoy :)

July 4th, 2009

We spent our fourth of July with the Fiji club in Provo at Kiwanis park. There was a BBQ, some rugby and volleyball, and lots of kids for Mallina and Eva to play with. I just put the pictures in a couple of slide shows...Mallina was spinning around and around and having a good time, and I like the shots I got of her :)

After we were at the park, we went back to Pleasant Grove and watched fireworks there, it was a pretty good show! We had a nice, fun weekend. Now we are planning for Mallina's birthday this weekend. She wants a party with Woody and Buzz from Toy Story, so we are going to the farm at Thanksgiving Point so she can ride a pony :) I can't believe she is going to be four!

In other news, Ieli got hired at the Provo Canyon School to work one on one with a student who attends school there, and so far everyone is really impressed with Ieli and it looks like he may have a nice long future with them. Now we are just waiting on me to get a job...yikes! Hopefully I will get lucky and get some calls for interviews soon!

Utah Lake

On Friday we were invited out to Utah Lake to hang out with one of Ieli's friends' family. I have only been to that lake once in my life and didn't really know what to expect. Our friends, the Rigamotos, live over in Saratoga Springs and on that side of the lake there is a small beach area where we hung out. The girls, the little fishies that they are, just loved playing in the water. Before we went Ieli took some pictures of the girls in some dresses his sister picked out for them last year. I think he got some pretty good shots!

Hiding behind the flag

Peek-a-boo!

Sisterly love

Testing out the water

The top of Mt. Timpanogos as seen from our spot on the lake...yes, that is snow!
That just seems so weird to me. It's JULY!

This is what the boat was towing around...that's Mallina 2nd from right.
She absolute LOVED it! Ieli went out with her while Eva and I stayed on solid ground.

On the way back in, you can see Ieli on there as well this time.

That was just day one of our holiday...we even ended the night with a BBQ and fireworks! I have more pictures from yesterday, the 4th, that hopefully I will get up quickly! Thanks for everyone who helped us have a great weekend!

Fun in the sand....box

Mallina is a digger. She would dig in the rocks in front of our apartment with one of my kitchen spoons. She was completely occupied for hours. Now that we have a yard at our disposal I really wanted to get her a sandbox and Grandma and Grandpa obliged. THANKS! Ieli and my dad built this for them and they LOVE it. Ieli spent some time playing in the sand box the other day with the girls and my nephew Jaxson (who is also here visiting Grandma and Grandpa from Texas).

Mallina the mermaid

Jaxson winning his kayak race

Mallina about to be buried for her kayak race

The shovel was a little large for Mallina


So we tried the small shovel instead. She doesn't look quite as excited.

And now for the sand castle. If you take someone who grew up on an island and ask them to make a sand castle, they make a sand castle. It was pretty funny...the whole time Jaxson kept talking about destroying the thing and it made Ieli nervous. He didn't want anyone messing with the thing until it was perfect.

The crew...excuse the fat mexican in the sand box.....hahahahaha!

What's gonna work? Team work!


THE Castle, upclose


You can see the outside "fence" that went all around it in this shot


And finally the destruction...Ieli threw Eva on the top first


Then Mallina joined in


And finally Jaxson got to destroy it too. I think that was his favorite part.



And just a really cute picture of the cousins. I put Cinderella on the tv on our room when I was going to go take a shower. Jaxson was nice enough to sit and watch it with them. He totally wasn't in to watching Cinderella. At. All. :)