Potty Time!

I am ECSTATIC! Mika just made shi-shi in the new little potty we bought her, after watching her big sister in action! This is definitely easier the second go round :) I just hope we keep her excited about going in there...

P.S. We bought the cheapest, simplest little potty thingy from Walmart that easily turns into a step stool when not in use (just put the lid down like a real toilet) and it's working great so far!

Dude, it's been so long!

So...Maybe I should be called the "Birthday Blogger" because my last post was about Elia's birthday and in 2 weeks (5 months later) it will be Mika's birthday! In any case, I actually have something fun to blog about so here goes...

For our family outing today, we went to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe and had a blast feeding the fishes and ducks! It was totally free (except for stopping to get hand rolls from Kozo sushi for our picnic lunch), very beautiful and relaxing! Here's some shots of our day and gorgeous surroundings:

I totally recommend if for those of you with children (remember to bring at least a loaf of bread- it goes quickly) and for people who are aspiring photographers...you will have plenty to shoot!

Turning 4 and other Big News :D

Elia is now 4 years old! We had an "Ariel" themed birthday party for her 2 Saturdays ago and she's still thanking me for her "pool and cake party" :D I'm grateful for a thankful child! Here's some photos of the beautiful sunny day that was just the "icing on the cake" after having a gloomy weather week...

Thank you Aunty Lauren for the new pool!

Elia had lost of fun in it with her cousins Ian & Jesse and buddy Santiago!

The cake :D

The special "under the sea" treats mommy made...

can you see the big fishy inside?

Fishing fun with cousin Tyson

The other big news is that Sam took his Nuke test yesterday and passed with flying colors!! We are so excited and happy! His recruiter even called to say that it was one of the best scores they've had at MEPS! By the end of this week we will get the official word on the waiver acceptance, but everything is looking good.... YEE-HAW! We are so thankful for this awesome blessing!

Good Friday

...yup that's what it was today in beautiful Hawai'i Nei :) We finally took the girls to the beach after a long hiatus with each of us taking turns being sick! The sun was playing peek-a-boo and it was little windy, but at least it was a warm breeze ;)

About 3 months ago I posted that our family would be experiencing "Big Changes in 2010"...boy, I never realized how BIG they would be! After much prayer and fasting, we've decided to give the green light to Sam joining the Navy! He's already taken the ASVAB (got an awesome score too!) and is studying up to take another test to get into the Nuclear program. We've also got to wait and see if he'll get a age waiver. If everything goes according to plan, we could be living in South Carolina for 2 years while he goes to school...we are excited! Having lived on this island for both of our lives, we are anxious to begin a new adventure! So, treasuring our opportunities to swim in the beautiful and warm Pacific Ocean is a must!

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...