Beauty & Turbans

This weekend was crazy fun. Not only did one of my best childhood friends tie the knot & I was able to devour all of my Polynesian food cravings at her reception....but I got a little girl & makeup time with Kiana (My brother's girlfriend from Kona).

A bunch of her friends were MAC makeup artists & professional hairdressers, and have branched out in creating their own company "Face Art Beauty". On Saturday they threw an event showcasing their artistic and creative makeup skills and invited a bunch of local vendors to do likewise. For a while, Kiana has been busy managing her little business called Love Made Hawaii, all handmade trendy turbans. And so her Mom & I helped her run a booth that night.

Girl's go crazy over Kiana's turbans, more the hip city & townside girls than us country girls. The few times I've worn her creations in public over here, EVERYONE stared for days. Anyways, she had tons of cute prints, different sizes and even turbans for toddlers. Cute!

Makeup artists and hairdressers were scattered around the floor doing complimentary makeovers and new do's. There was also a lash bar, body art model, photo displays and an instant photo booth.

25 Weeks & 5 Days

bed buddies

Comedy Tuesday

Today I got to hang out with local funny guy

Augie T

He stopped by the Polynesian Cultural Center to do a film shoot for his Funny Business production company. He was hilarious as usual and so laid back, but VERY passionate about the cause he was promoting through his Hawaii Alarm System: every alarm system sold = able to feed 10 homeless children.

{*The guy doing the solo is his business-partner friend, some multimillionaire from the mainland}

Augie earned even more SUPER COOLNESS points when I told him my Mom has ALWAYS been one of his biggest fans, since he was first starting out....and he did this shout out just for her:

I love that my job allows me to not only learn business & communications skills, but to actually interact with so many distinguished people in Hawaii. 

You the best Augie! Mom LOVED it.

Yummy, Easy, Dinner...

I decided to give my Mom a break from dinner tonight, since I was really excited to try these recipes below:

Easy Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

Recipe {CLICK HERE}

And for dessert:

Simple & Sweet Apple Cobbler

Recipe {CLICK HERE}

Sweet Dreams!

The recipes were VERY easy to do and requiring the little energy I had, since I've been nearing the end of my 2nd Trimester AND trying to battle off a cold. 

...seriously falling asleep as I post this and its barely 10 p.m.!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

xo, the aspinalls

Did you think to Pray?

Our little Mahie knows that when it's time to eat, we bless our food first.

Even at the age of 1 years old, James and I are glad that we must be doing something right if as soon as our daughter sits at the dinner table, she automatically folds her arms and waits for prayer to be said.

She may not understand WHY just yet, but it's a little seed that we have planted and will continue to help nurture and grow.

Plus, her Christlike attitude and innocence is a reminder to all of us busy adults....to remember to pray & thank our Heavenly Father!

How grateful we are for our little ones.

Happy Sunday Everyone

Eat, Pink & Be Married!

I spent my evening celebrating the upcoming wedding of one of my bestfriends: Keisha Moeai, SOON-TO-BE "Mrs. Funaki". The theme and decor was very cute, and we all dressed in pink. She served a mission in Guatemala, so her aunts made a really yummy taco bar. It was delish!

I wanted to do something different for her bridal shower gift & since I knew "Older Women" were throwing her party and not friends of my age & craziness range, I decided on a more PRACTICAL gift than silly. 

Click: {HERE:DIY Bridal Shower Cake} to see how I made it on my Mommy Blog

I'm not going to lie, I was a little hesitant when I got to the shower because 1) Only me & another woman showed up on time, for a loooong time 2) I was surrounded by middle aged & older women. I kept texting a lot of girls near my age range, but everyone either had plans or were at work. Don't get me wrong, I recognized everyone there, its just that THEY were all relatives or close friends....and then there was me & my iphone, lol. I felt bad, because I knew they tried to include me in their conversations at times, but I sucked it up and thought, I'm here to support my bestfriend and that's it :) I relaxed and started to enjoy myself......and boy did I UNDERESTIMATE the older women around me. 

 They were HILARIOUS! It was all good, clean humor....which was a change from the freaky showers I've been too. And guess what? These women were more fun to be around because EVERYONE wanted to participate, no one felt shame, they ALL brought a gift (it's so annoying when people to just come to eat. You're there to celebrate the bride, not make food for your family), well they brought a million gifts each, AND they were practical gifts. Keisha won't need to spend anything on her new house, she's set already. And they each had a beautiful and unique background history connected to the Bride. Plus, the food was AMAZING and in huge portions, I stole a plate of cookies when I left :)

*Note to self: When Mahie gets married, invite all women my age & above! 

The atmosphere was fun but also very special because of all her relatives there. Keisha is truly loved by everyone who knows her. What broke everyone down though & invited the spirit, was when Aunty Judy (Keisha's Mom) spoke about Uncle Harvey (Keisha's Dad who had passed away a few years back). Keish was definitely a Daddy's Girl, he would've loved celebrating her upcoming big day. I'm sure he'll be present this Saturday at her sealing. 

{Keish in Pink & Me in Blue, front center Kindergarten May Day}

Keisha has been my friend since.....forever? She has probably been my only friend who I can honestly say has NEVER done a bad thing EVER! I missed her when she left on her mission, especially since she was suppose to be in my bridal party. All my memories of her can make me laugh big time! Aunty Judy signed her up from Jazz, to tahitian, volleyball, anything and everything she did it! She definitely has all the qualities of an obedient daughter, genuine friend and soon-to-be wonderful, loving WIFE.

Love you Keisha aka "Popolani"

Tears & Hannabadaz

Remember I spoke about needing to channel Mahie's energy into some kind of activity? Well, I was at work and came across Gunstock Aquatics, aka SWIMMING LESSONS for kids. I was hesitant at first because Mahie is at that age range where her attention span is short and all over the place. The Gunstock Ranch instructors were really nice and assured me that they've taught as young as 6-month infants (crazy). They said I could give the first day a try and we'd go from there. I mean, if my daughter is just kicking and splashing around doing free play...she can just do that at home with the water hose right? AND for FREE, lol.

Day 1 & Day 2: Mahie did really well. No crying or hesitancy, to my nervous surprise! I was the one scared that maybe she'd throw a fit? Breakdown into shy tears? Drown? Not pay attention? Her assigned instructor was my friend Rachelle Christy, who I grew up with since Primary & Laie Elementary days. We got lucky, cause I didn't know anyone else.

Her swimming lessons are pretty cute and interesting. At her age she is being taught to get used to kicking while on her tummy and on her back. She doesn't like the back position too well, where her head rests on your shoulder and she kicks while you move backwards. She is being told to constantly kick, but that's exactly what she loves to do in the water. She still needs to use her front arms.

They do fun little games as collecting duckies and toys with a hand net (Mahie's fave) & collecting rings to stack. They also sing to the "babies" while sitting them on the steps or edge of the pool and coaxing them off into the water, arms wide open. Mahie wouldn't leave the edge unless she held one of my hands, but now she can't wait to fall forward. But, what scared me the most was that she went underwater TWICE! For her first try (literally a 1st for both of us), Rachelle had me blow into her face: which tricks younger babies into closing their eyes and holding their breath, AND DOWN UNDERWATER she went. Not just a quick dip, but a serious deep rounded dive, lol. As soon as she came up, I started clapping and cheering for her (too prevent any tears if needed), and she got excited. The second time however, Rachelle didn't tell us and pulled her under again. They do it a certain way where water doesn't go up the kids' noses. Mahie's big eyeballs were blinking with surprise. But again, she didn't cry :) She gets pulled under 2-3 times each class now!

Day 3: Today was DIFFERENT! Mommy did not get into the pool this time.
She cried and then whimpered the majority of her lesson (which is only 15 minutes for her age class). It was hard for me not to climb in with my jeans on. If only that other damn kid WHO ALWAYS CRIES WITH HER MOM CARRYING HER didn't decide to scream bloody murder today. It got Mahie flustered, but I knew she was ok because she still did what Rachelle asked her to do even while crying. (Cute but heartbreaking) I brought Hill along, so we both would wave and cheer when Mahie would kick by or face our direction. For the last 5 minutes, when they bring out the floaty games & ducks, she finally calmed down. Hill was amazed that she went underwater.

That's the update on our little swimmer. Her homework has been to practice blowing bubbles and using her arms. She does good at home during bath time, but for some reason doesn't do it at the pool. I told James that pretty soon his daughter will know how to swim better than him!

FARM FAIR 2012

Our daughter is energetic. Nuff' said. And since she's at the age where EVERYthing around her is so interesting to look, touch, taste, laugh at...we have stepped up on doing more activities outside of the home. Especially since I work every day, majority of the day, I don't want to look back upon this part of my young parent life and regret that I didn't spend more time with my firstborn (& oldest child).

We planned a family day for the weekend at the annual Farm Fair. We didn't make it to the 50th State Fair since I'm too pregnant to go on any rides and we knew Mahie wouldn't even appreciate it at her age, and James just doesn't care about that kind of stuff. So off to Kualoa Ranch we headed one bright morning. It was extremely HOT, good thing I sprayed sunblock all over Mahie. And good thing we brought our BYUH ID's because any student w/valid id got free admission! Woohoo! All we really wanted to go for was to show Mahie the animals, so I'm glad we just had to pay for food. A nice treat however, was that local singer Melveen Leed sang, told jokes while we ate. She, as always, was hilarious. James got a kick out of her stories and songs, and didn't realize how famous she was throughout Hawaii. I loved her stories of growing up in Moloka'i.

Look how big my little girl has gotten! She was running everywhere and wouldn't keep still, until we got to the animals. She enjoyed looking at the goats, stinky pigs, rabbits, chickens....but NOT the cows. She was scared to pet them, even with James coaxing her little fingers with his.

We even got to visit Uncle Eric at work, in the middle of a parking field desert. Seriously it was blazing hot. I can't see how Eric and his coworkers can handle that everyday. We each left the Fair a couple shades darker. Well, Mahie's legs are already papa'a, but now they are officially black. hahaha.

We had fun, but taking into consideration the heat, crowds, long food lines & post sunburn....I'm glad we got in free :)

America the Beautiful

04 July 12

America really is the best place to grow up as a kid.

We celebrate millions of holidays, with tons of meaning & history behind them. People in the world always hate on us.....but then everyone always wants to come to OUR COUNTRY! for education, marriage, to become famous, immigration, vacation....we got it all!  

I have always enjoyed learning about how our nation came to be, and am very grateful for the Founding Father's providing a land of Freedom. (Even though feeling FREE is hard at times, lol) Nonetheless, I wouldn't want to be a citizen of any other country. As a Hawaiian, although it is sad that our cultural history shows betrayal and Queen Lili'u being overthrown....Heavenly Father truly blessed that trial in having Hawaii emerge as the 50th state: where today we are blessed with technology, education, public health, protection, etc. It's the same with my Navajo history, but hey the Government learned its lesson....cause now I get free money in college. I CAN get free medical back on the Rez & Mahie too, and Land, and basically any aide that a person may need (woohoo)....*well, if you think about it, thanks to my Mom & her ancestors, we really ARE THEE actual American Americans!!! Native Pride!! :)

Yes there are some cultural lows, but honestly, living in Hawaii, I'm glad I don't have to struggle with certain things like on other Polynesian islands. *Not that our country is perfect!

Grandma pushing Mahie in the Laie 4th Ward Primary parade

Hill, Mahie & Isaac

Patriotic dessert: blueberry jello, vanilla pudding/custard, graham cracker crumbles, whip cream & strawberries!

Happy Fourth of July America!
Can't wait to cheer for our very own in the upcoming Olympics!

Happy Birthday To MY DAD

It was my Dad's 50th birthday on Saturday, June 30th. 

He & my Mom went out for the evening, so we decided to celebrate today. 

Here was the Pinterest cake that inspired me:

(Dad loves pirates)

 And here's the actual cake that turned out.

Don't worry, I heard enough from my husband with the comparison, bahahaha.

So we decided to call it the "Shipwreck" cake instead.

The instructions were pretty easy, to the point where you didn't even need them. But.... It was so hot that day, plus with the oven on, it made our house a sauna, seriously. The cake layers started to get sticky when I cut them, and my crumb coat didn't even pull through for me. 

O well, it's the thought that counts right?

Plus cake is devoured in seconds anyways.

Happy Birthday Dad!

I, nor any of us kids can believe you're 50!

WOAH!

*Story time Flashback:

So one day, when I was a very INNOCENT & LOVING little girl, I knew my Dad wasn't feeling too well. So I decided to help him feel better. I went to the kitchen, found a bottle of pills (not even sure what pills they were), and off to my Parent's room I went.

My intention was to hand my Dad his "medicine", but instead plans changed when I found him snoring away on the bed, fast asleep & mouth WIDE OPEN!

I knew at that age that you had to swallow a pill for the medicine to work and drink a glass of water after. Good thing Dad had a half-filled cup of liquid nearby. 

So, instead of waking Dad up, (because that might make him mad, LOL), I dropped a few pills down his wide open snoring mouth, along with the contents of the random half filled glass. 

My Dad lunged forward out of his sleep, coughing & choking for dear life. And I stood there in horror. LOL, here I was thinking I was helping my Dad!

I'm not sure if I got "lickin's" from doing that, but the message is,

"I love you Dad & I'll take care of you no matter what.....oh, and now you have a second chance to baby proof your house correctly now that your grandkids are running around. "

I can only imagine what Mahie would drop down your throat :)