Big Changes for 2010!

Well, the New Year will definitely be bringing some big changes for the Cheney Ohana... we are moving! Yup, due to our desire to pay off some bills and prepare for Sam going back to school, probably in the Fall, we've decided to return to Kahana where we will live on my parents' property. These past few days (and the next few weeks will be nothing but preparing for the move, and moving! We'll only be pausing to celebrate Christmas! Today we made some big progress in putting up the entire skeletal structure for the extension we are building! Big mahalos to the Naeole family, Freebairns and of course my own siblings who helped out A TON! If all goes as planned, our project will be complete BEFORE I return to work on Monday, Jan.4! We'll see...wish us luck! Merry Christmas & Happy New Year everyone!!

Hat 2 Da Back!

Halloween 2009

Both girls were Tinker Bell this year, thanks to Grandma and Papa :) I must say it was a popular costume... On Tuesday night we had our Ward's annual Trunk 'O Treat and got lots of goodies, then on Saturday night we took the girls to Windward Mall to trick 'o treat and got about half as much... so much for the good old days of getting a sack full of candy!

Mika was fussy for the most part, but she smiles on demand

when the camera comes out ;)

Elia won our Ward costume contest for "Most Magical" in

her age category!

Our theme for our trunks this year was "Your Favorite Scripture Story"

We did Noah's Ark and won the cateogry "Most Fun".

The girls got a hold of Sam's hat and provided a great

"Kodak" moment ;)

Simply...FUN :D

FHE Last night: Who knew you could have so much fun

with just a blanket, some stuffed animals, and 2 giggly girls??

Mika enjoys flossing...with the whole roll of course!

Just don't make her brush her teeth!

Perfect weather for the beach...at 5pm!

It was just so hot, we said "Why Not?"

Elia and her BFF, Kayla enjoy making sand

creations...

Mika looking "Oh, So Cute" in her bathing suit ;)

Less is More

Yesterday when I came home from watching conference at my parents house I started thinking about this idea...."less is more". At the beginning of August we got the news that Sam's hours would be cut in half at his former full time job...I was angry and frustrated at this news! Then recently I've had to take a 8% pay cut (but we did get 2 Fridays off every month!). With all of these cuts and having "less", I have learned to find the hidden blessings, even things that I prayed for.

For example, last year my schedule was so CRAZY with having to be taxi driver to and from school and work. Now with Sam being half time, he only works 3 days a week (and gets to stay home with the girls 2 days a week), and he now doesn't start work until 8am which now allows him to be the taxi driver and take Elia to school :D Having less money really does have it's perks! Here's "more"...

Less income= learning to be MORE frugal and smart with our money (we are saving more now than ever before!!)

Less money = being MORE creative on what we do for "date nights" :)

Less days working= MORE days home with the kids and time to get home projects done

Less hours of work= MORE time to get ready in the morning (which any parent with grumpy children who don't want to brush their teeth in the morning can appreciate!)

I am VERY grateful for all that we do have and now that we have "less" of some things, it has allowed me to see these things more clearly. To anyone else who is going through similar financial struggles, I say '"find joy in the journey" and hold on tight to the ones you love. Our eternal families are the most precious things we have!

Where in the WORLD....

has the Cheney Ohana been?? Not blogging lately, that's for sure ;) Well, this past Tuesday night our Enrichment Activity lesson was on "Family History" and of course they talked about keeping journals, and all that good stuff...which got me to feeling really guilty about not keeping up with this, our "family journal" that I WAS doing. So, I'm getting back on track, so to say :D

The most recent and exciting thing we've done lately is celebrate Mika's 1st Birthday!! Following tradition, I took the day off to spend it with my precious little one. We had to run some errands, I took her to the mall play area, and then we celebrated with ice cream at Farrells! Here are some photos of the happy occassion:

On Saturday, September 5 we had her birthday party at my parent's place in Kahana Bay...

Little Ms. Independent had to do the bubbles all by herself!

Yummy Haupia cake from Ted's Bakery...

Time for presents!

This is the beautiful quilt Mika's birth mom made for her!

You can tell she likes it ;)

Happy 4th 2009!

That morning, we went to the 4th of July parade in Kailua for the

first time...

Here's a cute group of girls doing the poi balls!

Here's the scary Samurai guy who tried to chop my husband in half!

We went together with our friends the Allreds and their

2 children Justin & Kayla. Kayla & Elia are BFFs ;)

Hope you all had a great time too!

KONA

What an adventure! Sam & I flew out on Friday night....although we missed our original flight! I had checked us in and printed out our boarding passes at home, which didn't have our gate number on it. Once we found our gate number on the screen, I mixed it up and had us at gate 59 instead of 56...by the time we figured this out the plane was ready to depart! Thankfully the nice people at Hawaiian airlines moved us to the next flight, which was only 20 minutes later :D Whew, that was a close one!

Once on the beautiful island of Hawai'i we booked it to get our rental car and find the theaters...Sam wanted to watch "Transformers" first thing! How fitting that we should get a yellow wanna-be "Bumble Bee" chevie cobalt ;) Unfortunately, the movie was sold out by the time we got there...but, since we had driven all the way there we watched "The Proposal" instead. It definitely had it's funny moments!

The beautiful red sunset on Friday night while driving to the theaters!

After the movies, we finally checked into our hotel...and Sam checked his email where we had a very sweet and cute video message from Elia, wishing mommy & daddy "Happy Anniversary!" (Thanks mom!)

One of the best parts of our mini vacation was being able to sleep in (Mika gets up at 5:30-6am everyday)! I actually still woke up at 5:30am, but got myself to go back to sleep :) The only bad part was that the pillows sucked, so we didn't sleep as well as we would have in our own bed...

Saturday morning I discovered I had left a crucial part of my temple attire at home, so we had to reschedule our temple session for a later one, which thankfully once again, wasn't a problem. Since we had extra time before our session we dropped by Denny's for breakfast, but they were too busy so we opted for danishes and chocolate milk from Safeway. We drove to the temple and ate in the parking lot. It was amazing to see and feel the difference in our surroundings once we were there. It truly is a beautiful place filled with the Spirit.

After our session we dropped off the car and boarded the plane (this time without any mishaps:). Once back on Oahu wouldn't you know...Sam was still determined to see that movie, so straight from the airport, we headed to yet another theater (can you tell we like movies?)! AND we got to view another beautiful sunset sky on our drive...

"Better with time"

Our Special Day

June 28, 2003

Sam & I at TVA 2003

In a few hours we are taking off for Kona to take in a session at the temple and celebrate our 6th anniversary. As I sit here and reflect on my marriage, I am sooo grateful to have married Sam! I am grateful for answers to prayers, because it helped me to choose between two good things (mission or marriage). I'm grateful that 6 years later we are better friends, better communicators, better at making each other happy and more as one. Sometimes I wish I could fast forward to 4, 10, 20 years from now and see how much more we will grow. One thing I do know is that if we continue to live the gospel, and keep Him at the center of our lives, our marriage and love will always get better with time... I love you Sam and everyday I love you more! Happy Anniversary My Love!

Where, oh where...

DOES THE TIME GO?!? It's been almost 2 months since my last post and I'm like "what?!" So what was the reason for my absence? Well, first it was the fact that Sam kidnapped our camera to do stuff at his work place (I'm seriously sad that I have no pictures of Mika for the month of May!) and then it was plain laziness on my part...

But I'm back now and hope to be more diligent in keeping our blog updated :D I really have no excuse now, since I'm at home on summer break!! YEE-HAW! So, what's up with the Cheneys? Well, here's some updates:

Sam's has a special project this summer. He is making Titi Torea sticks for PCC to earn us some extra cash. His first order will be delivered on July 1, so every free week night and weekend this month has been dedicated to sewing, painting and braiding for the bags and sticks. It's kinda embarrassing to say but, Sam is the one doing all the sewing, while I am simply the eager student :)

Lethe is home on summer vacation until July 28 and enjoying time with the girls! She has started a preschool group with some of her friends and they meet every Tuesday and Thursday for a couple hours, and all the mommies take turns teaching a lesson/activity. This was our first week and it was a success! I'm also reading this book I highly recommend to all you mommies "A Mother's Book of Secrets" by Linda Eyre & Shawni Eyre Pothier. Thank you Caira & Caryn!

Elia has been enjoying sleeping in, swimming in her pool and playing with her baby sister. I gotta say that 3 year olds are lots of FUN! Less tantrums, more smiles, and she's such a big helper! I also get a kick out of the things she says, like "Mommy, what are you talking about?"and how her sense of humor is really kicking in :D

Mika is just growing by leaps and bounds...which isn't to say that she's getting any bigger (she's still my petite little girl who is now 9 months old and weighs only about 15 pounds or so)! But she sure is keeping us busy! Our little girl is crawling and standing everywhere she can (her favorite spot is the bathroom- we've learned to always try to keep that door closed) and has already started taking over her sister's toys. Just this morning the two girls were wrestling over a toy, and I couldn't believe it! I thought it would take much longer for this stage to start! She's also eating a wide variety of foods...not just the baby stuff and dives or swipes for whatever she can reach. Just today she stuck her fingers in her daddy's ice cream ;) She is also our little dancer, bobbing to the beat of any music she hears! She is such a joy and has a contagious smile that shows 2 of her now 6 teeth...yup, got the tooth brush busy too!

Next weekend, to celebrate our 6th year anniversary Sam and I are going to Kona! We're staying one night and catching a not too early temple session in the morning, then fly home that afternoon. My parents were kind enough to watch the girls for us, so a big MAHALO to GRANDMA & PAPA! I'll be sure to post some pictures from our mini vacation on here. Till then...

Kaka'ako Park :D

 Last Saturday we met up with some very good friends of ours at Kaka'ako Waterfront Park and had a BLAST bar-b-queing and sliding down the hills on our picnic mat and small pieces of cardboard that we scrapped up :D  The weather was beautifully sunny with a nice breeze too!  Ahhhh... just another day in paRaDiSE!!

Birthday Girl!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Following tradition, we had a 2 day celebration for Elia's 3rd birthday. On the real date we go and do something fun as a family and then on the following Saturday we party! This year we took Elia to Sea Life Park, which was perfect because they were running a Kama'aina Special that weekend :D I also happened to have the day off for Good Friday! Sam couldn't join us :(, but my parent & siblings did :) It was a FUN 3 day weekend!

Happy Birthday My Love!

Tomorrow is Sam's 28th birthday, and in honor of my special guy I decided to share with the world the Top 10 reasons why I love him...

1.  We have a true partnership in our marriage.  We help each other out with anything and everything!

2.  He is a GREAT daddy...he can always get Elia to smile and laugh during those rough moments when she doesn't want to brush her teeth or take a bath!  He also never complains when I tell him it's his turn to get Mika a bottle in the wee hours of the morning :)

3.  He misses me just as much as I miss him when we're not together (even if it's only for a day, an hour, or less).

4.  He has the corniest sense of humor!  Very silly and innocent :)

5.  He is so handy and talented!  From carpentry work to plumbing, electrical, locks, computers, and everything in between, he does it all!  Not to mention that he's a musician and takes beautiful photos!

6.     He is an "outside of the box" kind of thinker.  He always has an unique perspective on things, which opens my eyes to new things.

7.  He is a person of integrity.  With big and small things, he is always honest.

8.  For all the big things, we see eye to eye.  I love that he respects me and values my opinion about everything :)

9.   He is one handsome guy :D

10.  He believes in giving back and giving big!

There are so many other things I could add, but I'll just sum it all up by saying "I love you babe, U DA BES"!!  Happy Birthday and I look forward to sharing many more with you...

M.I.A.

Yes, the Cheney Ohana has been "Missing In Action" on the blogging scene for a few weeks now... for good reason!  Lethe was sick with a sinus infection for a week, then the stomach flu bug decided to pay the girls a visit...first Elia, then Mika!  They both threw-up for a few hours, but then the diarrhea set in and for Mika it lasted for more than a week!  On our worst day Mika had about 30 dirty diapers (I'm not exaggerating)!!  The good thing is that neither girls got dehydrated, so we just had to ride it out and stocked up on Pedialyte and cornstarch (for Mika's bum).  It's been 24 hours of only wet diapers, and I tell you, I couldn't be more happy to see shi-shi!  :D

Caught!  Mika playing with her crib bumper

In happier news, Mika is now 6 months old and her 2 favorite things are paper and buttons... specifically calculators, the keyboard, and remote controls.  It is so good to see her back to her happy, smiley self!  Right before she got sick we started trying to feed her solids, rice cereal and carrots were the first attempt.  Boy, I wish I got pictures of the face she made!  Yeah, I'm finding that it is gonna be a bit tricker to get this little one to eat... we've also tried bananas and apples with about the same response- gagging and spitting her food out.  This will be our next project I guess ;)   

Matching dresses...I love having 2 girls :)

Elia continues to be the great big sister!  She and Mika play together and it is the cutest thing!  They both crack up together over the silliest things.  Last night Elia was playing with a beach ball, throwing it into a laundry basket, and Mika starts laughing loud and putting on a big smile.  So of course Elia repeated the same actions over and over to get her sister's same reaction :D  Elia makes Sam and I smile because of the new words she's learning (and repeating- watch out!).  She'll be 3 years old in less than a month and we're planning on having a "Cat in the Hat" birthday party for her on April 11.  We hope the weather will be nice that day!

P.S.  Here's a sample of Mika's typing:

.-0-;-09-

Tie-Dye flowers

On Sunday night we had a fun FHE... we made these simple paper flowers that brought out each of our "artistic" sides.  Sam's was really cool!  I've always admired his creativeness...  Elia got into it to, and the markers got all over her!  Oh well, definitely worth the fun memories :)

P.S.  I learned how to do this little art project at one of our preschool workshops.  All you need is coffee filters, markers, water, and pipe cleaners (actually making it into flowers was my friend's idea).