THE TEO'S

we miss alligators

2012-01-13T00:59:00.000-08:00

the te'o family in footprints =)

so we moved to our new house in july and we do love it but it isn't a few minute walk to the best beach on the island. today we went to alligators and remembered why we loved our old house so much. we love alligators. it is the best beach ever. we had so much fun. lennon got his feet wet for the first time, in the same spot that his big brother got his feet wet for the first time. both boys had a good time and both parents had a good time. today was a good day. then we went to our neighbors house for a homemade pizza night and they made the most amazing pizza ever and i made the most amazing cupcakes ever and then we remembered why we love our new house so much.

L & L

2011-12-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

doesn't even take his superman gear off for the beach

lennon 2 months old.

2 1/2- 3 months

2 1/2 to 3 months old

i like this picture because it looks like lennon is talking to daddy

luka LOVES building blocks.

lennon just 3 months

lennon 3 months, luka 2 yr 3 months

at cafe haleiwa for dinner

lennon, 3 months old. at Eowyn's bday party

tiger =) at Eowyn's 4th birthday party

at kahuku farms, our new favorite weekend lunch spot

brotherly love! <3 very grateful

lennon at his 4 month check up

Here's a little update on my boys...

Luka

Luka loves, cars, trains, trucks, reading, puzzles, and building blocks, art, especially clay and paint, his daddy, his brother. YES he loves his brother!! yay! he just recently took a liking to lennon which we are stoked about! He now wants to help him all the time and even says, "i love brother" which is awesome and heart melting. Poata said "Luka gave us the best Christmas present, he loves his brother." Luka loves playing with our neighbors, 2 little adorable girls. they usually play pretend dragons and princesses where luka is always the bad dragon. Luka doesn't really like food much but we are working on that. he will eat any kind of fruit without hesitation though, especially berries of any sort. above all else though luka loves superman! he is definitely going through a little superman obsession! he needs to be wearing a cape at all times! if he doesn't have it on he pouts and says "mommy, i can't fly, i have no cape." for a while he was wearing his superman costume from his 1st halloween!! he was 3 months old!! we cut the bottom off and took the elastic out of the arms haha. but now he has a few superman t-shirts to wear instead. he is almost always in a superman costume! luka is tall for his age and just above average for his weight at around 29 pounds or so. he is advanced with his communication skills and can pretty much say any word and is starting to pronounce things perfectly. he can identify his entire alphabet and knows all of his shapes and colors. i think he is just the smartest sweetest little boy! he doesn't really take naps anymore which is a bummer but he does sleep very well at night, on his own, and just rarely wakes up to go potty but then he goes right back to bed. he definitely has a little attitude/ temper though. he gets pretty grouchy sometimes but is still a happy and funny little toddler. we love him with everything we have and are so proud of his development.
Lennon
Lennon is such a sweetheart. he is a cuddly little one and doesn't mind who he is with as long as they are holding him and giving him love. poata says "he is the ultimate scam artist" because he makes whoever is holding him think that they are his favorite so that they will continue to hold him. everybody mentions how much lennon likes them and they always say, "i think i'm his favorite." there is a long list of relatives that believe this. lennon smiles at everyone, even the nurse that gives him his vaccinations! after he gets them! he is less of a high maintenance baby than luka was. he is content when he is sitting up because he can grab his toys now and play with himself. he loves his little rattles and blankies. he also loves his brother! he watches luka do everything and smiles at him constantly! he is such a chunker! at his 4 month checkup he weighed in at 22.8 pounds! he is over the 110th percentile for height and weight. the doctor said that he's the size of a one year old and that he is the biggest four month old that he's seen in a while. haha. he sleeps pretty well at night just waking up about 2 times per night and takes pretty good naps. i think he would take better naps if luka wasn't banging things around all day but oh well. we love him so much and thinks he is such a handsome sweet baby.

the holidays

2011-12-28T00:20:00.001-08:00

thanksgiving dinner

in my moms yard on thanksgivng

our family and my mom's friends family on thanksgiving

honolulu city lights

luka's favorite display at honolulu city lights, the surfing snowmen

honolulu city lights christmas tree

us <3

luka and daddy

hawaiian mr and mrs. clause

winter pj's

just starting to decorate our tree

as a tradition each year we collect one of the "le bien" ornaments, which are glass ornaments painted from the inside of the glass ball through the small hole at the top. they are so beautiful! each year after we pick out our tree we go straight to pick out our new le bien ornament. each year they make about 8 or so in the collection and we just pick our favorite one. this year we got one with the three wise men on it and i'm in love with it.

last years le bien ornament

this years le bien ornament

a little closer look at some of the ornaments on our tree. the heart is 2008's le bien ornament

big boy lennon

he looks like he is totally posing here

lennon's bubble toes

lennon the santa and luka the reindeer at our ward party

on christmas eve on our way to cheesecake factory

christmas morning

santa came

i think he likes his piano =)

so I haven't blogged since before thanksgiving but luckily I didn't really take any pictures at thanksgiving so I won't overload you with pics in that category. we did have a great thanksgiving though. we spent it at my moms house and she also had a high school friend and her family join us. (the husband of my moms friend is a photographer and he did take a few pictures so i'll share a couple of those) everything was delicious and it was a beautiful sunny day so we ate our thanksgiving in my mom's beautiful yard. Christmas and all the festivities leading up to it were amazing. we had a blessed month of december and we are really humbled and thankful for everything in our lives! To kick off the Christmas spirit we visited the Honolulu city lights which was beautiful as usual but this time around we had a lot more fun because Luka is at a perfect age to enjoy it. When we drove past the lights on our way to park luka said "I'm excited!!! My FAVORITE lights!" Poata and I cracked up, it was so funny and cute! we also had a good time at our ward christmas party! we love our bishop so much, he is such an awesome person! he dressed up as santa and shook his big booty around and luka was so excited! luka got a goody bag from him and talked about how santa gave it to him for days. on Christmas Eve we have a funny tradition of going to eat at the cheesecake factory. Obviously this started before we had the boys and also my parents lived on the big island but nonetheless it is a yummy tradition. When I was younger and visited California for Christmas each year we had Christmas at my grandmothers house and she traditionally makes tamales for christmas dinner so at cheesecake factory I order the sweet corn tamale cakes to have somewhat of a taste of my grandmothers amazing tamales. We might have to change our tradition next year though because the boys get tired and fall asleep on the way home and then we can't put out cookies for santa together and read "twas the night before christmas." Poata worked so hard to make sure our Christmas was amazing and that luka especially had a memorable Christmas. we bought Luka a baby grand piano and it's so cute! we have wanted it for him for some time now and we were really happy that we finally got it for him. he loves to sing jingle bells accompanied by the piano. he looks so cute sitting on the tiny bench made perfectly for him. i can't wait till lennon gets to enjoy it too. on Christmas morning my parents, younger sister and grandpa came over and we had piles of presents for each person and had fun opening them all together. Luka would get so excited for each present that it took him forever to finish opening all of his gifts because he would play with each one for a while before he wanted to open another one. I made french toast for everyone and we had a great morning. I made a small christmas dinner that night and we had a sweet and mellow night together. I love my little family so much and I'm so thankful for a hardworking and loving husband. both boys are so in love with their daddy and it melts my heart. we are so thankful for the church in our lives and the humility and love it teaches us.

day one...

2011-11-02T03:19:00.000-07:00

November 1st, today we are thankful for our boys, Luka Nuufou and Lennon Falefasa. They bring us more joy than imaginable.

Halloween!!!

2011-11-02T03:13:00.000-07:00

We had a perfect Halloween, and October for that matter. We had so much fun carving our pumpkins and we were all stoked with the finished products =) Luka is a tad bit, wait, more like ridiculously obsessed with superman right now, so Poata helped him carve a superman pumpkin. The boys were owls for Halloween so I did an owl pumpkin and the Lennon's tiny pumpkin had a circus elephant on it because I feel like elephants are kind of his theme, Luka's is a lion. Anyways for Halloween we went to Sunset point like usual and had a lot of fun trick or treating and checking out other costumes! Luka all day was saying "trick or treat" well it sounded a little more like chuckee cheese but still, then of course when we started actually trick or treating he wouldn't say it. He did get the hang of it a little later and started saying "happy Halloween" to everyone instead. He was on a total mission to get candy, he was so fast and easily spotted the houses giving candy and charged for them! He walked the entire time and had a lot of fun. He loved his costume and would flap his wings for the candy givers. Lennon was also a very good little owl, although he wasn't as nocturnal as an owl should be. We got tons of candy and had a lot of fun! We ended the night with a delicious dinner at my parents house.

blessings and pumpkins

2011-10-24T03:04:00.000-07:00

October has come and almost gone, it is so crazy how fast time flies! Lennon is 2 months old now, and Luka is 2 and 2 months. At Lennon's 2 month check up last week he was 16 1/2 pounds, putting him at the 110th percentile for weight! fatty! He was at the 97th percentile for height at 25 inches. When I look into Lennon's steel blue eyes I really feel like he is going to bee such an intelligent child like his older brother. I feel like he is attentive and absorptive. He always wants to be a part of the action and does not like being put down! He is a sweet and cuddly little guy. I love the way he hooks his arm around mine while I carry him. He is very smiley and makes the most adorable sounds when you play with him. Now for Luka. Luka is such a smart little one I think. He is learning so quickly and is so eager to learn new things daily. He loves doing art and we have been doing a lot lately, from painting to sculpting. Luka I feel, excels at everything he tries from art to language. He practices everything continuously to try to get it right. He observes everyone and everything and picks things up really quickly. He has been saying really great prayers lately and he has actually really helped strengthen my testimony! He is such a blessing in our life and I feel like he is so in tune with peoples feelings and is very sensitive. He is so loving and empathetic. He is completely potty trained now and is so proud of himself, and of course I am proud too! He calls himself "pee pee boy" which is hilarious. His brother is "poo poo boy". Luka loves the old superman movies and has recently become a super hero which involves never taking a cape off! I feel so blessed to have these 2 wonderful boys in my life! Every night when the boys go to bed Poata and I always stay up talking about how much we love them! Usually the first thing Poata says to me after I put them to sleep is "I love Luka so much" then it moves on to Lennon. I am so thankful to Poata for being such a loving father, and also being a good example to them as well as me. He gave Lennon such a beautiful blessing at church a couple of weeks ago, and I am really thankful for that. Lennon was so peaceful through out his blessing, unlike his older brother who screamed bloody murder the entire time during his a couple of years ago. Anyways here are a few pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch as well as Lennon on the day he was blessed.

Dr. Lemon

2011-09-16T12:54:00.000-07:00

I just have to document this because it is ridiculously cute and hilarious! Luka told us that his, and I quote "Brother is a doctor, Doctor Lemon". Obviously it's our favorite thing! My grandmother seems to think he associates Lennon with the doctors because I was always going to doctor visits for him but Poata and I think that Luka can tell the future and Lennon is going to be a doctor =) Lennon's nickname now is Lemon because of Luka and we think that's super cute too! Yesterday was Lennon's 1 month doctors check up and the doctor said "Well that's an extraordinary weight gain!" He was born 8 pounds 2.8 ounces and lost a little by his 2 day check up, weighing in at 7 pounds 13 ounces. Yesterday at his 1 month check up he weighed 13 pounds 2 ounces, that's almost double in a month!! haha! What a little fatty! He is at the 97th percentile for weight and at 24 inches long he is at the 100th percentile for height! Anyways, these boys keep me busy smiling and I love them so much!

adjustment

2011-08-31T01:38:00.000-07:00

So adjusting to two isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I guess I prepared myself for the worst and luckily I don't have the worst case scenario. Luka is so good with the newbie! If the baby cries he says, "baby, tying (crying), help him" then he tells the baby, "you're otay baby, you're fine" haha he is so funny! He doesn't smother the baby in kisses or anything but you can tell he cares for him. He also likes to share his toys with him! He has a Thomas the Train set and also a miniature wind up set of Thomas trains that he calls the baby trains so naturally he thought the baby should play with them, it was so cute except instead of handing them nicely to Lennon he pretty much just chucked them at his face haha, then he pries his hands open and makes Lennon hold them. He meant well though and told me he was "sharing" it completely melted my heart as you can imagine. Anyways he is a pretty awesome big brother and I can't wait for them to be able to really play together! As for me I recovered pretty much instantly which was obviously great! I only gained 14 pounds during this pregnancy, Lennon was 8.3 lbs and my placenta was huge so I pretty much lost everything instantly too which is also great. With Luka I gained 19 and Luka was 8.10 and my placenta was 10 lbs so similar experience, stoked on that! I'm really enjoying being a mother of two, I'm excited for the future! I love having them both in my arms at once, such an amazing thing, still can't even believe it! Anyways I have some goals lately that hopefully I can follow through with. My two boys are so good for me that I've been thinking of a bunch of projects and such that hopefully I can do while juggling 2 babies. I want to do some art projects and house projects but also some work on myself, exercise and what not. Well anyways just thought I'd do a little post about what I'm thinking right now. And here's some pictures of my 2 boys!

Meet Lennon!

2011-08-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

Please welcome to the world baby Lennon!! He made his debut on August 9th 2011 at 10:05 am, weighing in at 8 pounds 2 ounces and was 21 inches long. He is such a sweet baby boy! He spends all of his time eating or sleeping. Luka is such a great big brother, he seems to love his baby brother and is very gentle with him, he was a little jealous at first but I think he is adjusting perfectly. I couldn't ask for anything more! The labor and delivery was such an amazing experience. I actually almost didn't make it to the hospital in time! My doctor said had my water broke on the ride there that I would have had Lennon on the way! So with that said here is the story...
Monday night at around 9:30 I started having contractions, the first contractions I felt through out the pregnancy. They were timing about every 8 minutes but I was tired so I went to bed, I pretty much slept through all of them. Around 4:30-5 am I started waking up because of the contractions but tried to stay asleep a little longer. Around 6:30 I woke up completely and the contractions were getting pretty painful but were still 8 minutes apart until I got up and went to the bathroom and they jumped to 6 minutes apart. I still felt like I had a lot of time so I decided to eat breakfast and I called my mom and calmly told her that I was heading to the hospital pretty soon but to take her time (she was coming to my house to take care of Luka and to take him to the hospital with her). After I hung up the phone, around 7:30 or so, my contractions all of a sudden jumped to 2 minutes apart! And lasted well over a minute each! The pain intensified by a million and I told Poata, who hadn't yet brushed his teeth or even begun to get ready, that we had to leave NOW! My costco belgian waffles were in the oven so I quickly inhaled them in between a contraction and grabbed a few snacks to add to my hospital bag that I had luckily packed the day before! I called my mom to make sure she was on her way and thank goodness she hadn't listened to my advice to take her time and she was just pulling into my road. The minute she walked in the door I jumped in our truck with Poata trailing quickly behind me. Now I started to feel like I was in a movie, I was screaming through each contraction and yelling at Poata to drive faster in between them. He was swirving in and out of rush hour traffic and driving like a maniac! I saw a few cops on the way and debated whether or not to pull them over, instead of the other way around, to have them escort us. We live a little over an hour away from the hospital I was delivering at. We FINALLY made it there! Poata used valet parking and grabbed me a wheel chair and we painfully made it to the 10th floor where labor and delivery is. When I made it to my room they checked me and I was at 4-5 cm and jumped to 6 cm 2 minutes after. They pulled the anesthesiologist out of a c-section delivery she was about to do and she got my epidural in, I asked for a walking epidural ( a lighter version epidural) and she bluntly told me that I should take what she's giving me and I shouldn't be negotiating if I want any kind of relief! I probably should have been a little angry but she was right. She gave me the epidural and then apologized for being short with me but she gave me exactly what I asked for so I was very happy. I could feel the contractions coming on but with out all of the pain. I could also feel my legs which was great because when I had Luka I couldn't even feel that I had legs, what so ever! After I got my epidural they let me rest for about 15 or 20 minutes and the baby made his way further down in that time and I started pushing right away. I pushed about 5 sets of 3 and he was out! In between pushes I was talking about the London riots and random little conversations, laughing and chatting. It was so relaxing and I was so alert and aware of everything going on. With Luka's birth I felt so delirious and exhausted that it wasn't as great of an experience for me, but of course it was still amazing and special in it's own way. After I delivered him we were able to stay in the delivery room for a couple of hours with Lennon before we had to move to a postpartum room and before they had to take him to be bathed and checked. It was so great to get that relaxing cuddle time with him! He latched on perfectly and has eaten well ever since. I felt so great immediately after and even got right up and walked to use the bathroom when I moved to my postpartum room. I didn't even need help into my wheel chair to move from my delivery room to post partum room. I even walked to check on Lennon in the nursery a couple hours later with no problem. We only had to stay one night at the hospital and we left around noon the next day. The hospital stay went by so fast and Poata and I were excited to pick up our Luka from grandma's house. We missed that little monster! I am so blessed to have these perfect little boys in my life! Luka is adjusting so well and Lennon seems to be getting stronger each day. He smiles all of the time and eats and sleeps a lot! He gives me lots of rest and I don't even feel like a zombie like I did with Luka! Anyways that's the birth story of Lennon, hope I didn't bore you =)

I love my family

2011-07-30T03:11:00.000-07:00

All Grown Up

2011-07-30T03:04:00.000-07:00

For Luka's bday weekend we took him to the water park for day 1

and the ice age train and toys r us for day 2

and i made a homemade ice cream cake for my luka and had family come over to celebrate.

My darling Luka baby is TWO!!! Crazy how time flies! I have had so much fun these past two years, Luka has brought joy to Poata and I in so many ways! We wake up everyday to his cuteness and can't imagine life without him! These past two years have been such a journey for us. We have learned so much from Luka. Luka is such a smart baby and we are surprised and impressed by him daily. He talks up a storm and copies all of our words. He knows all of his animals, their sounds, his colors, shapes and some letters. He loves to build with legos and blocks and can make huge towers! He loves disney's Cars to no end! He also loves trains and construction machines! He loves to "fix" things with his tool set, just like daddy. He pretty much loves anything daddy loves. He is such a cuddle bug and sweetheart towards mommy, but is the opposite for daddy, he likes to "fight" daddy and play crazy monster games with him. Luka is the light of our life, I really can't believe I've already shared 2 years with him! The most amazing 2 years! And now another journey begins. I'm due with number 2 in 2 weeks! I hope Luka will be the best big brother ever!

Spring Fun

2011-04-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

taking our orders =) he always gets in this little house and pretends to take our orders for snacks then goes to the other side of the house and moves his hands around and pretends to do stuff and comes back with our imaginary snacks. it is soooo dang cute!!

at Pearl Harbor

submarine

memorials

Pacific Aviation Museum

i went to Japan to lend a hand

this tower was in the movie pearl harbor as well as a couple others

in one of the hangers that was in use during the attack on pearl harbor, there were even still bullet holes in the windows

inside of a military helicopter

luka and daddy in a helicopter

waimea day

perfect beach day at waimea

luka seriously makes the best motorcycle sound effects ever

walking to kawela bay

kawela bay

jungle cupcakes for the baby shower

the gorgeous mother to be, Brittany

my little monkey

look at that face <3 he's beyond stoked!

last night's amazing sunset

We have been trying to take Luka on a lot of adventures lately, his vocabulary is growing so fast so we're trying to take him to new places to learn new things. He has so much fun going anywhere so it makes it a lot of fun for us! He always says "WHOA!!" or "WOW" in such an excited voice when he sees neat things. We took him to the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor and we all had such a great time there! I definitely recommend going! There are a lot of different museums there that you can visit separately so we plan on going back soon to see the submarine, ship and memorial. We have also been having a lot of beach days with daddy which is especially fun! When daddy's home we get to go to a beach besides alligators, not that we don't love alligators but its fun to switch it up. Like every other kid in the world, Luka loves the park! He has mastered a curved ladder and the slides and he has so much fun chasing other kids around and playing. We try to take him to the park every evening when Poata gets home from work. I had a baby shower yesterday and Luka tagged along, Poata and I had a deal this weekend that on saturday he could have 5 hours alone and Sunday I had 5 hours! amazing, let me tell you! But I also had an amazing time with Luka at my friends baby shower!! It was jungle themed so I baked some jungle face cupcakes that were a hit. There was a pool so Luka had a blast!! It was a little windy so he played in the jacuzzi which was at a perfect temperature, like warm bath water, he obviously had so much fun as you can tell from his huge grin! Anyways that's a little update on what we've been doing lately.

boats

2011-04-10T18:39:00.000-07:00

at one of my doctors appointments

"fixing" his train

Luka and Naia at Naia's first birthday party

me and the birthday girl

Naia getting her new sunrise shell necklace that I'm totally jealous of!

Naia and her mommy

ducks at the harbor

Luka loves boats, well any moving vehicle actually (cars, trucks, construction machines, airplanes, helicopters etc.) we take him to the haleiwa harbor often to take walks and admire the boats. It's a fun little family walk and it wears him out for bedtime which has been kind of a nightmare recently but anyways here are some pictures of one of our walks at the harbor. We also went to waikiki and had lunch at the cheesecake factory and upon leaving realized that there was a parade going on! Talk about perfect timeing! This has actually happened to us before in waikiki, on Poata's birthday we ate at cheesecake factory and there was a parade going on when we got out. I guess we're just lucky! So I know there is a major overload of pictures but I was too lazy to decide which ones to post so I just did them all. Wait till my next post, there will be even more!

love and other things

2011-03-09T21:50:00.000-08:00

luka playing in a pile of ice at foodfest

our first ever dinner date without luka!!

cupcakes I made for Randy's bridal shower (she likes tie die)

Randy's beautiful wedding

luka waiting not so patiently

picnic at the beach with my lovies

beach day

luka's first trolley ride!! he is obsessed with trains and basically anything that moves but he thought the trolley was a train so he really enjoyed it!

bridal shower, wedding, picnic, foodfest, trolley ride, dinner date etc... i love my husband and i love my little luka! life is good =)

Jack Johnson!

2011-02-26T05:20:00.000-08:00

Tonight there was a fundraiser concert at Waimea Valley to benefit my old elementary school, sunset beach elementary school. It was an art auction as well as concert, the advertised artists playing were John Cruz and Paula Fuga, who are both amazing on their own and also both happen to be very very good friends of Jack Johnson. Knowing this we knew that Jack would also play at the fundraiser, especially because he also graduated from sunset elementary and we weren't wrong fortunately! He went on stage with John Cruz and just so happened to play our song, "better together". He also played banana pancakes and a few others. It was amazing! The cutest part was when Jack was done playing he said he had to go because his baby was at home with a babysitter =). Also did I mention that I was touching the stage and less than five feet away from him! And the most surprising thing was that Luka fell asleep while he was signing! It was crazy because Luka never falls asleep anywhere but home or the car and especially not at a concert! But we had such a great night! I almost didn't want to go because I wasn't sure jack was playing and I didn't want to bring Luka with us because I wasn't sure there would be any other kids even though it was an all age event but there were TONS of other little kids there and a bunch Luka's age and he had soooo much fun dancing and singing! I am so glad we went! We all had a great time! Jack was great and Paula was too! She had a song that I had never heard before but is totally my new favorite song, I think it's called parachute and what do you know, Jack Johnson just so happened to have co-wrote it with her! He's amazing =) Oh wait, did I mention me and Jack go way back? He was actually my neighbor growing up and kind of babysat my brother and his dad built my grandparents house that I grew up in so he totally knows my name. =) I took a bunch of videos but they were taking forever to upload so I give up.

Guess What?!

2011-02-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

baby number 2 is baking in the oven and they can already tell that it's a boy! ("pretty certain")

12-17 months old! Finally a new Luka post!!

2011-01-24T18:32:00.000-08:00

Luka is almost 18 months now! It's really crazy how time does fly! This age is definitely my favorite age so far, minus the little tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Everyday he does or says something new and fun! He is growing up so quickl! Luka is a really good boy and is very friendly and adventurous.

Things Luka says:

bird
uh oh (every time he drops anything! it's so cute!)
hi
bye bye
dad
B (he calls me B, he can also point out and say B in the alphabet)
hand
eat
shoes
fish
cheese (not for the food, for when he takes pictures=) )
thank you
bad (he thinks our puppy's name is bad! haha)
bus
water
eyes
beep beep
wow!
whoa!
draw (he loves to draw pictures and draw on walls lol)
ouch and owie ( he points out ouchies and blows on them and kisses them, and he also has imaginary ouchies that he likes us to blow on and kiss.
says "mooo" when you ask him what a cow says
(i might have forgotten some so i will have to come in and edit and add some more later)

Things Luka does

Points at eyes, ears, mouth, nose, head, feet, toes, hands, legs, bum bum (butt), belly button
runs
slides down the slide at the playground all by himself
says his prayers (our favorite! he folds his arms and closes his eyes tightly and mumbles some silly words and the claps for himself afterwards)
turns on and off all of the lights for us
makes every sound effect for motorcycles, helicopters, airplanes, horns, construction trucks etc.
does summer-saults
walks in the ocean by himself and tries to swim
finds me pretty sea shells
waters our plants in the garden
shares his food
is nice when we tell him to be, instead of hitting and slapping he will pet or hug
hugs and kisses
blows kisses
waves goodbye and says hi to everyone, especially at the grocery store
pretends to be a puppy, on all fours growling and panting

Things Luka LOVES

motorcycles, helicopters, airplanes, construction trucks, busses, semi trucks, firetrucks, ambulance
popsicles
his mommy and daddy, especially daddy when he gets home from work
his grandma
fruit
spaghetti
chilli and rice with avocado
beans
minestrone soup
drums
guitars
pianos
pretty much any musical instrument actually
bath time
playing with cars
tomatoes
his puppy Rambo

I love this kid!!!!!! =)

Jingle bells, jingle bells

2011-01-02T01:57:00.000-08:00

my present =) this is at our ward christmas party

waiting in line to see santa at the ward christmas party

Luka with daddy and Luka's friend Shaedon with his daddy getting thier goody bags

love this picture!! Look at Luka looking at santa! haha! He is like why the heck are you making my friend cry, you monster!

our christmas tree on christmas eve

christmas morning

pumpkin pie with a gingersnap crust that i made for our christmas dinner

pumpkin pie with a traditional crust with a layer of toasted pecans

Christmas 2010!! It was definitely a success! We had such a great year and we are so grateful for everything we were blessed with, throughout the year and for Christmas! I got what I wished for and so did Luka and Poata, we are all happy campers =) I loved Christmas so much this year because Luka knew what was going on and was excited to play with each present he received which made it so much more fun! We shared Christmas morning with my mom, step-dad, brother, sister and cousin Rama. Later that evening we had a big Christmas dinner. Unfortunately we missed the Honolulu City Lights this year. *big frown* We planned on going Christmas Eve which is a tradition of our but Luka was really sick that night and it was pretty stormy out so we skipped it. But we did do some other festive adventures like driving around to point out our favorite Christmas Lights and going to the Haleiwa Christmas Parade and baking cookies for Santa and going to our Ward's Christmas party, among other things. I hope you all had a fantastic Holiday season as well!!! xoxo

Garden

2010-11-07T02:05:00.000-08:00

"Luka's banana tree"

Hello friends! It's November so I've been thinking about what I am grateful for lately and I'm grateful for a WHOLE LOT! But today as Luka and I took a walk around our house I couldn't help but be super grateful for where I live and all the beauty that surrounds me! I happened to have my camera with me because I had to take pictures of our studio that's attached to our house because our tenant is moving and so I had to post some pictures on craigslist to get it re-rented but anyways I am so happy that I had my camera, now you can see what I am grateful for too! Luka has so much fun exploring our yard, and it's no wonder why! I remember as a kid exploring the yard and finding new and interesting things all the time! The flowers in our yard are in full bloom lately and there are even some new funky mushrooms that appeared because of the recent rain. Another thing I noticed while exploring is how good our mini garden is doing, I say mini because all we have planted is a banana tree, 2 papaya trees, tomato's, basil and taro. Writing that down just now actually seems like a lot! haha. We have enjoyed plenty of our basil and had taro a couple of times but we are still waiting for the others to bare fruit. I only snapped a picture of Poata's banana tree because it is just growing like crazy! Poata planted it "for Luka" a few months after he was born so it is about a year old. Anyways I am so very grateful to be able to live in Hawaii and to be able to grow my own little garden and be able to explore with my very curious little toddler. Happy November people!

Firefighter's, Puppies, Monsters, Temple's, Pumpkin's...

2010-11-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

after our Laie Hawaii temple tour

pumpkin patch

at the hare krsna temple

the cute little Indian girls

our new puppy Sole

my hello kitty jack-o-lantern

our owl and hello kitty

Poata's owl

my boys

my monster cupcakes

do you see the green vampires have blood on their teeth? that's my favorite part

my firefighter

i think it's bed time

the lickety split ice cream truck gave out free mini ice cream cones! yum

firefighter family

HALLOWEEN!!! Well before I get ahead of myself, let me first explain that like most of my posts, this is a pretty random one. But I'm sure you figured that out by the title! So The title isn't in chronological order but I think my post will be. So first we went to visit Temples! Most importantly of course was the open house of the Laie, Hawaii LDS temple! It is being rededicated after being closed for over a year for renovations but before they rededicate it they have it open to the public to witness it's glory! It is beautiful! We took a tour of it last Saturday. It's really neat because they let you see all of the rooms, including the brides room, the sealing room, the celestial room among others. It was such a great opportunity and experience and I was lucky to be able to go with not only my dear husband and silly son but I brought along my brother, sister and cousin as well and as non-members they were really impressed! Now in my title it says "temple's" not temple. The next day we went to the Hare Krsna temple in town for their free Sunday feast of amazing Indian food and as usual it was delicious!! There were also these darling little girls in the most beautiful little outfits! I had to snap a pic of them! Next on the list... Pumpkins. We took Luka to the pumpkin patch to pick a couple pumpkin's to carve. It was so much fun to pick out a pumpkin that is still growing on the vine, I actually had never been to a pumpkin patch! I had no idea there was even a pumpkin patch on the island until this year! We picked out a couple perfect pumpkins and we carved them into an owl and hello kitty! Luka had a great time flinging seeds around our living room and trying to help us carve. Puppies comes next chronologically on our list. We got a puppy yesterday! His name is "Sole" which obviously Poata picked out. He is a pure bred, purple ribbon, papered (whatever that means) Blue Nose Pitbull. He is such a sweet and mellow puppy! Luka is still getting used to him but has fun poking around his body. The puppy really likes Luka! Next, "Firefighter's." Luka was a firefighter for Halloween this year. He even had a fire truck to ride in while trick-or-treating! He was such a cute little hero! He kept his hat on the entire night which really surprised me and every time it fell off he would hand it to me and wait for me to put it back on! He also loved his boots! Ever since we bought them he has been bringing them to me and making me put them on him then he will walk around the house for the rest of the day in them! I love my little fireman! Ok, last but not least... Monsters! I made little cupcake monsters to bring over to my mom's house on Halloween. They were so fun to make and I thought they came out so adorable! I can't wait to make some more! Hope you all had a fun Halloween! Now it's time to get ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas!!

Our First Trip To SAMOA! (and hopefully the last... just kidding)

2010-10-24T03:53:00.000-07:00

Luka's first plane ride!

the view of Samoa before we landed

Poata's brother Faaee

a lady and her baby selling pillows... yes- pillows

really really extremely expensive produce

gnarly weird bread with frosting and fruit loops?? no, i did not buy it or eat it!

poata's dad Falefasa, at Poata's grandmother's house

Poata's arm and his mother and grandmother

some little cousins of Poata on the swing set in front of his grandma's house

Luka with his grandma Lupe

the tombs of Poata's relatives, outside of his grandmother's house. Everyone has tombs like this right in front of their houses! It's crazy how different cultures can be!

Luka made so many friends while on vacation! I'm sure he misses them! They were so sweet to him!

the open market! This one sells produce and there is another for clothes and souvenirs and such


the inside of the buses! And they blast music like nobody's business!

sene (cents)

the Apia harbor

the clubs!

crazzzy amount of coconut trees all in one place! This was how it was everywhere!

kings tomb

the parliament building

the robert lewis stevenson house/ museum

statue depicting the a story about king malietoa who was a cannibal

amazing pathway to a waterfall!

a baby waterfall

more friends of Luka

the road to Poata's house in Solosolo

cool hut in Poata's yard

Poata's house

crazy glowing tree

little cuzzy's

cool island in Poata's village

these little convenience stores were everywhere! Like every 10 houses!

Falefa Falls. Gorgeous!

the stairway down to falefa falls

Poata's cousin Henry, who I was a little infatuated with ;)

Poata's little cutie cousin with Luka

this should be at the top of the page because it is Luka at the HNL airport waiting to board

the open market

oh heaven, especially when it is a million degrees outside! Scoop's ice cream! yummmm, pretty much a daily treat

Poata and Luka sharing their scoops

the SAMOA APIA temple! we can see it from Poata's parents house!

helping his grandpa Fasa fix their truck

Luka on "White Sunday" a huge kid's holiday in Samoa

at church

GNARLY FEET!!!!!! OMG!

White Sunday

with 2 of his little cuzzy's

oh just chillaxing with some frozen apple juice

at the solosolo sea wall

just another gorg waterfall!

with little cousin Menime

Poata's brother with his future wife Ana

my BFF'S!!! I loved these little piggies!! they live at Poata's aunts house and they are so cute and small!

Luka on the phone at his great grandma's house with his cousin Peta

at the Apia sea wall with the harbor in the distant background

at the airport going home

Luka on the flight home in his pj's, it was an overnight flight so luckily he slept most of the way, this was right before landing.

We took our first, long awaited, trip to the friendly islands of SAMOA! We have been together 5 years now, married 3 1/2 and finally made it to my husbands home country! Of course he was beyond ecstatic to be home! All of his family were dying to meet our little "baby Luka." Everyone called him that there! It was really cute! We had an amazing 2 week stay there. Number one on my list of things we did was going swimming in 3 different beautiful waterfalls! Samoa is beyond lush and gorgeous! Even more so than Hawaii and obviously Hawaii has no shortage of lush-ness! There were rivers about every other mile and waterfalls flowing into the street and the mountains are un-tame and beautiful with overflowing coconut and banana trees. And while I'm on the subject of coconuts and bananas, I should add that I drank on average the water of 3 young coconuts (niu) a day! As well as bunches of bananas, papayas and other yummy fresh fruit from the HUGE open farmers market. We went on a couple historical outings as well, like the Robert Lewis Stevenson museum (author of "Treasure Island" and "Dr. Jackle and Mrs. Hyde." Turns out he lived in Samoa the last 4 years of his life and loved it there so much that he moved his entire family there and wished to be buried there when he passed. His home was beautiful and was in my favorite village in Samoa that Poata and I referred to as "Mill-Ville" because of all of the gorgeous giant houses! We also visited the tombs of past kings of Samoa, in a gorgeous coconut tree filled park along the beach. We went to the open markets a lot just to look at all of the neat crafts that people make and to grab a few souvenirs. We spent a lot of time visiting Poata's family in his home village of Solosolo. We met mostly with his mothers family because his mom doesn't really like his father's family for some mysterious reason, and was pretty adamant about us staying clear of them. We had a good time in Solosolo! Samoa is just beyond humid though! I think maybe Samoa is close to Hell? Another thing I didn't care for was the cultural view toward money. I thought it was strange to have such amazing people, who work so hard and live off of their own land and raise their kids to be so respectful, religious and diligent, revolve their minds around money! Maybe it is just because we come from the states and they think that we are all rich here, when in reality we work extremely hard to survive here! So because of this false idea of money growing on trees they expect us to just give all of our money freely to them, to everyone! From high school friends to family, to beggars, to random acquaintances, NOT COOL! Especially when you brought money thinking you were going to have lots of fun with it! I mean this in no offense possible, this was just my interpretation. Anyways besides the heat and the shortage on cash we lived and we had a very memorable trip and my husband is dying to go back! His brother is on a mission in the Philippines and has a beautiful girl waiting for him so assuming he is going to marry her short after his homecoming we are planning to visit again for the wedding. Which is a little too soon if you ask me. ;) I'm really thankful I live in Hawaii where it is beautiful and a little cooler.

waves and rain

2010-09-20T00:55:00.000-07:00

Today the waves were big, are big still. I can hear them crashing as I type this, I can also hear rain drops falling on the leaves outside of my window. This makes me happy! Super happy! Not only because I love the beautiful noise, it drowns the noise of any car passing by. But also because in Hawaii when the waves get big that means it's winter, and winter means holidays! And I love holidays! Winter also means fun! Fun contests, surf night, Christmas parties, dressing up, foooood, family and yeah all that good stuff! Tonight's mood: excited! I am going to go to sleep listening to the waves, and the rain and I am going to dream of sugar plums, well not really because I don't even know what sugar plums are but how about I will dream of what I'm going to ask for, for Christmas! Sounds good! Good night. Oh yeah, but what I'm not so excited about right now is that Luka is sick. Sad! He has a cough. But at least he is extra cuddly! Ok, good night.

day in the life of a 24 year old!

2010-09-20T00:44:00.000-07:00

I'm 24! I had such an amazing birthday this year! I got everything I asked for and more! And being the princess that I am, I asked for a lot! The day started out with sleeping in, courtesy of daddy Poata taking Luka on a bike ride. Then I was told to get ready, for what I had no idea, so I put on a cute dress and sandals. I figured a typical surprise would be a mani/ pedi or my hair done. Poata came back from getting me my favorite smoothie and vegan granola bar from Waialua Bakery and saw I was wearing a dress and said "Ummm, You CAN'T wear that, put some jeans on." Jeans? To get my hair done? Whatever. So I put some jeans on. We first stopped to pick up my custom made sunrise shell pendant that Poata got me. Then we continued on our journey and ended up at HORSE STABLES! I was going on my first horseback riding adventure! I've been wanting to do this for a while! I've never been on a horse before! Two years ago on my birthday I wanted to go horseback riding but Poata and I were trying to conceive and we weren't sure if I was in the early stages of pregnancy or not and Poata didn't want to risk anything with me horseback riding so we couldn't go, then last year I had a one month old so it wasn't really possible then either. Then this year... sigh =)... It was amazing! Anyways, after we rode our horses on the beach along the north shore we went home and got ready for dinner in town with my family. We went to the Cheesecake Factory, as usual for my birthday. I don't know why I love that place so much, but I do! I think it might be the avocado egg rolls? At dinner I got another present, a canon camera that I've been dying for! It's super tiny and 14 mega pixels and it's all black, even the lens. It's so cute! And takes really great pictures! I'm so stoked! After dinner we headed to my brother's house where I got to open another of my presents, my pink beach cruiser! Then we drove over to my cousin Rama's house and she had beautiful cupcakes for me and they sang happy birthday to me. She has the most amazing view of Waikiki strip from her apartment! We then headed home and I was beat! I had such a good birthday!! Luka was a really good boy the whole day for me too!

Bicycle

2010-08-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

Luka LOVES bike rides!! Our new family thing is taking bike rides together, my mom bought Luka the coolest bike seat that fits in-between our arms in the front of the bike so he can see everything. We usually take a ride to Sunset beach in the evenings and watch the sunset. It's super fun! Luka obviously loves it, and its a good exercise and its a green activity and its just way fun!

Luka is ONE!!!! Brace yourself for a million pictures!!

2010-07-28T01:32:00.000-07:00


Pinata time!

Happy parents!!

Construction cupcakes that I made.

The cake I made!! My first tier cake!

Desserts!

We all had matching t-shirts!

more shots of my cake.

We played "Pin the hard hat on the foreman" instead of pin the tail on the donkey.

There was a "construction zone" for the kids to play at.

A couple of my friends made him mini t-leaf leis! They were sooo cute!!

singing happy birthday!

cutting the cake

Luka's first cupcake!! Happy Birthday! He loved it!

Luka playing in his pool and loving it!!

all of his presents!!! And I got to open them =)

Luka The Foreman Is Turning One So We're Going To Have Loads Of Fun!

2010-07-20T01:39:00.000-07:00

Luka's first birthday party is THIS Saturday!!! It's construction themed (can you tell?) so for his invites we took these pictures. Thought I'd share. Mainly because I'm in LOVE with them!! It was so hard to choose just one for the invite! I can't wait to do a post about his party!! But here are these until then.

Luka Update

2010-07-18T01:41:00.000-07:00

Luka's first birthday is in a week!!!! AHHHH! Totally can't believe it has been a year!! Since he is almost twelve months I figure it's about time I put up his 10 month beach picture. And I guess his 11 month picture as well. Can you say SLACKER! Anyways here is a quick update on the life of Luka Nu'ufou Te'o.
Likes:
Peek-a-boo
the beach
dad
mom
grandma jenna
clapping his hands to music
slapping us
the bathroom
guitars
drums
stereo
pretending to drive our truck
pushing his stroller around
taking walks
birds
helicopters
lights
his car seat now that we face it forward
reading
looking at pictures of people he knows
grocery shopping while standing up in the cart

Dislikes:
when people leave (dad or grandma is particular)
taking baths when he is really tires
putting new diapers on
when he has to stop playing the drums (which Poata so kindly set up to torture me!)

Nicknames:
pumpkin
monster
hippo
opihi
lil man
luka-buka
sweets/ lil sweets
chubbo

Things he does:
WALKS!!
claps all the time, even when a tv show says to or when listening to songs he likes
cracks up at everything!! He laughs when other people laugh at something like he knows its funny too!
makes a really annoying whining sound
points at everything he wants
turns on and off the llight
talks on the phone
brushes his teeth
feeds himself
brushes his hair
dries off his face with the towel after brushing his teeth and washing his face
yells at everyone!
comes when you tell him too (if he isn't being naughty)
kisses
hugs
waves hello and goodbye
yells while putting his hand on and off of his mouth like an indian
blows kisses

that's all I can think of for now. We had a long and fun day.

The Fourth!

2010-07-12T18:12:00.000-07:00

So I know it is now the 12th of July and that I took a really long time to write this post but I lost my cord that connects my camera to the computer to upload pictures and I still haven't found it but luckily my mom has a cannon too and they use the same cord so I can finally put up a new post on this blog as well as my baking blog. We had a super good fourth of July weekend! Friends and family came over and we barbecued and played in the kiddie pool and kayaked and then we headed over to Turtle Bay Resort because they have an annual celebration. It was pure awesomeness! Kapena played which happens to be one of Poata, Luka and I's favs! And Luka was a crack up!! The minute we got there and set him down on the grass he started dancing and clapping. It was beyond cute! Even Kapena said something in the middle of his song like "yeah, you go little braddah," haha I think that's what he said. Anyways, we had a blast!

Fathers Day, A Success!

2010-06-21T03:27:00.000-07:00

Yeah these are cupcakes!!! Spaghetti and meatball cupcakes! I made them for Donnie for fathers day and he loved them!

We had a great Father's Day today, man June is just the month for Poata! Lucky guy! Friday we had our ward's Samoan class Father's Day party to go to and of course I was in charge of bringing cupcakes, not dessert, cupcakes specifically. It was a super fun party. The food was great and there was this amazing coconut pineapple juice with little pineapple bits in it. I asked Poata if he knows how to make it and he said yes so I yelled at him for not making it for me any of the 5 years we have been together! But anyways Luka had a blast dancing the night away and running away from us to get to the stage and the speakers. Yesterday we went kayaking at waimea bay. Today we woke up and gave Poata his gift then my mom and Donnie (stepdad) and Savanna (sissy) came over for breakfast and I made homemade french toast and it was delish! Then everyone went home and our little family took a big fat nap! Then Poata's cousin and his wife and their baby boy came over, that was the first time Luka has met them! The last time we saw them was when I was about to pop with that little guy. After playing for a while they had to head back home and we got ready to go to the movies. My mom, donnie, sav and Jai (brother) all met at our house and we headed up to Millilani and ate some sushi for dinner and then saw Iron Man 2 and loved it. We just got home and after this quick little blog post I am calling it quits! But first I will show you some pictures... which may take the rest of my life to post considering my blogger takes a lifetime to upload pictures for some lame reason! Oh yeah and this morning I took pictures of the cupcakes I made for Donnie and for Poata and then I forgot my camera in our dining room for the rest of the day so yeah, I'm just as lame as blogger's picture uploading skills and all I have to show is the cupcakes I made for the dads here and some of the party we went to on Friday.

Birthdays!

2010-06-16T04:23:00.000-07:00

It was Poata's birthday on Friday, (June 11th). It was also King Kamehameha Day, because Poata is a king, or at least gets treated like one everywhere he goes (I'll get into that later.) Anyways for his birthday he got a rigid job site ipod radio that he has been wanting for quite some time now. He was beyond stoked and preceded to lay in the yard with Luka's inflatable pool as a pillow with music blasting. While he was laying in the yard I was baking my little butt off! I actually baked his birthday cake the night before because I had tons of baking to do on his birthday for my SECOND cupcake order!! My first order was only for 24 cupcakes and this order was for 75 cupcakes!! The party was an incredible hulk theme so I made "green" velvet cupcakes. Later on that day we headed to town for dinner and there was nightmare-ish traffic and we had no idea why so we finally found parking and walked to the waikiki strip and realized the entire road was closed for a festival! They were celebrating Poata and his king-hood. The festival booths were still setting up so we headed to dinner first at the Cheesecake Factory. Delicious as usual. The best part of dinner was how amazingly well behaved Luka was for us! At the cheesecake factory they make a little butterfly out of bread and bananas for kids and Luka was so content with that for his dinner. He is getting so good at chewing now and we also figured out that night that he can drink perfectly out of a straw! After dinner we headed out to that festival and watched a few of the performers, there was drumming and dancing and live bands as well as a lot of fun vendors. We then headed to our favorite store Babys R us. We spoiled Luka rotten as if it were his birthday! But we went there with a mission to stock up on our new favorite jean diapers in case they stop making them. We also had to get a present for the birthday that I was baking for the following day. On Saturday morning I packaged the cupcakes up and we headed to the party. We had a lot of fun there chatting with our friends and avoiding the water balloon fight. Everyone said they loved the cupcakes! Then on Sunday we taught our primary class for the first time. One word. HILARIOUS!!! I love these crazy kids! It was better than watching T.V.!! I can't wait until next week's episode! Favorite quote: " I don't know why my mom had that brother of mine! He is bad because when he was born he tried to come out the wrong way!! When babies are born they are supposed to come out head first but he tried to come out feet first! And then my mom had to get cut open!!" Then a few of the other girls chimed in... "my mom had to get cut open too!" "mine too!" Then a little boy, "I hate it when that happens!" I was literally in tears laughing!! I am not kidding you! TEARS! Anyways the cutest part was that I taught the days lesson on gratitude and I had the kids draw a picture of what they were grateful for and why and one little girl drew a picture of her mother and explained that she was grateful for her because she gives her hugs before she goes to bed. SO CUTE! Anyways we had a great weekend! Poata said it was one of the best birthdays he has ever had. Oh Wait! I forgot to mention what I baked for Poata's birthday cake... A SIX (6) LAYER CHOCOLATE CAKE!! It was six layers and in between each layer was a layer of chocolate ganache and a layer of cream cheese frosting, then the cake was covered in chocolate fudge frosting. It was awesome and he was very impressed! I love him! Oh and one more thing, Poata gets treated like a king EVERYWHERE we go! It's almost getting funny! We went to the hare krsna temple last week for the feast and this Indian guy just started showering Poata with garlands and food and cookies and praiseing him, then on his birthday we were looking into the quicksilver store because there was something going on and the girl at the front door informed us it was a private party and as we started to walk away the bouncer was like do you guys want to come in? Come in, it's a private party, I'll let you go in. And many other times that I can't recall right now because I have the worlds craziest memory. The end. AHH okay, ONE more thing! I promise! Luka had his first shave ice! haha. It had no flavor, just the ice but he loved it! We always feel bad for him when we go to matsumotos but this time he was very satisfied with his ice. okay... THE END!

live laugh love GROW

2010-05-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Luka is learning at a rapid rate now! He is AMAZING! He is nine months and counting and his first birthday is sneaking up on me like a ninja. Speaking of sneaky ninjas Luka is quite a little sneak himself! So here is a little update on his life:
Things he LOVES:
-His dad (and his mom of course)
-The beach (he kicks his legs until we let him in the water)
-Being outside in general
-Grocery shopping (He stands up in the shopping cart and yells at everyone)
-Dancing (He holds on to anything he can and shakes his upper body and moves his feet as fast as he possibly can)
-Singing (His favorite song to dance or sing to is the lion sleeps tonight- in the jungle song)
-Playing the guitar and ukalele
-Reading books (I have all of his books lined up against the wall on the floor in his room and he will crawl to them daily and pick them up and make weird noises and flip them around)
-Drinking anything he can get his hands on (he yells for whatever we are drinking and he can drink pretty well out of a cup now so we give him water and once and a while a sip of our smoothies and juices, he would do anything for a sip!
-His Grandma Jenna (He cries for her when she leaves!)
Things he HATES:
-Green beans
-Putting his pajamas on when it's time for bed
-When we don't give him what he is asking for
-When dad leaves for work in the morning
-Sitting in his car seat for too long
-Dogs (He is pretty scared of them)
Things he has accomplished:
-Standing unsupported
-Dancing
-Clapping his hands
-Waving hello and goodbye
-Plays peekaboo with us
-Understands a lot of what we are saying to him, like "no" "dont eat that" "come here"
-Kisses us!! (my favorite!)
-Hugs us!
-Cruises around while holding on to furniture
-Says dada to his dada
-Mimics a lot of things Poata or I do (It's really easy to teach him things now)
-Eats about 3 jars of baby food a day now!
-Almost has his first teeth! (I know it is pretty late but I can see a few about to pop out!!)
-Almost took his first steps! (a couple of days ago he kind of took his first steps, it happened so fast we don't even know!)

Luka is so smart and aware of everything around him. Him dancing is probably the cutest thing Poata and I have ever seen! Right when we put a song on he just starts rocking out! It's the best part of the day!

My First Mother's Day

2010-05-10T10:51:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day Weekend started on Friday morning. Poata has a new schedule with his job where he works 10 hours a day instead of 8 and now he has Fridays off because he makes 40 hours by Thursday. It's way cool! So Friday morning instead of Luka and I going on our alligator's walk just the two of us, we had daddy come along too! And we stayed a while and some of our friends happened to be there too! And that means there were babies! Since allll of my friends have babies! Jen an old co-worker of mine was there with her 7 week old little baby girl that I haven't gotten a chance to meet yet so it was great to see her! Next up on our Mother's Day weekend was our ward's Samoan Sunday school class's Mother's Day dinner. It was surprisingly super fun, I think due to the fact that Luka was a crazy party animal! He was singing and dancing out of control! He busted all these new moves he had never done before! He was the life of the party! Poata was also in heaven because they served crab and shrimp and I was in heaven because they had every single flavor of Ted's Bakery pie, my flavor of choice being chocolate haupia of course. Saturday started off with a shopping trip to get my mom a gift and then to the grocery store to get all the ingredients to make a special treat for her. After that we had a kids rager to go to! It was the coolest thing I have ever been to! ok well the coolest kids thing that I have ever been to! It was a rock and roll/ reggae party especially for little toddlers! There were live bands playing rock and roll and reggae lullabies and numbers and colors songs. There were at least 50 kids there rocking out. There was even a little baby drum set for the kids to play on while the band was playing. It was a pot luck so I made cookie monster cupcakes again and they were a big hit with the kids! So after the party we went home and I started making my mom's mother's day cake. It was a 6 layer rainbow cake! Each layer was a different flavor, red-strawberry orange-orange yellow-lemon green-kiwi blue-blueberry purple-grape. The frosting was a lemon cream cheese frosting. My mom is obsessed with rainbows, she has been since her mom (my oma-grandma) died and thinks it's my grandma's way of saying hi. yeah she is a little crazy. But anyways I figured for mothers day it was perfect! My mom loved it!! So Sunday she came over and cut her cake and was thrilled! Then we headed to the beach! She took Luka along with them and Poata and I kayaked to the beach and met them there. It was so beautiful out and super clear! We saw tons of turtles! We brought some snacks with us to the beach and stayed all day! Then we went home and had another collaboration dinner. My mom made pasta salad, ceasar salad and furikake ahi and I made tofu, broccoli and asparagus stir fry and rice. Everything was super good! Mother's day may be my new favorite holiday! Poata is such an amazing husband and always makes me feel special and appreciated!

btw recipe and directions for the rainbow cake will be on my other blog. http://beachfrontbakery.blogspot.com

Bakery Blog!

2010-05-03T00:55:00.001-07:00

I am super excited about having another blog to share recipes! I am on this cupcake kick right now and I'm enjoying every bite of it! If you haven't checked out my blog do so NOW! And become a follower! And share some recipes with me! I made some cupcakes tonight and they were probably my best yet! "Guittard and Ghirardelli chocolate cupcakes dipped in ganache and topped with cream cheese frosting. Yum! Get the recipe at:
http://beachfrontbakery.blogspot.com
On another note we went to Lanikai again this Saturday. Super fun! We went to the Lanikai Spring Festival which is like an art fair. Then we went to Fromaggios to eat and it was soo good! We have only eaten there once before because we don't get out to that side much but I want to go all the time! Anyways after that we met up with my brother and his new little cutie kitten named rachel/musubi/victoria. We are still deciding on a name obviously. Anyways to end the weekend today I had my family come over and I made enchiladas filled with cheese, corn, black beans, cilantro, onions, tomatoes, jalepenos and orange bell peppers and they came out great!! I wish I got a picture before they were devoured because they looked really yummy too! Every once and a while we try to do this collaboration dinner with my mom where she brings half the dinner and I make half the dinner and it works out really well! So this time time I made the enchiladas and guacamole and she made spanish rice and beans. Everything was super good and it was fun to have everyone over. Jai brought rachel/musubi/victoria and I usually don't like cats but she is a sweetheart! Anyways I hope everyone has a great new week! xoxo

Beach, Sleep, Eat, Beach, Sleep, Eat...

2010-05-01T10:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm going to try out this numbering thing...

1. Luka turned 9 months and we went to his 9 months appointment and everything went well, he got two shots and the first one he didn't even cry and the second he cried a little but got over it as soon as we walked out of the door. He is such a big boy!
2. We LOVE our kayak!! We took it out at sunset beach last weekend and it was so much fun! The weather has been amazing the past week and we are hoping to take it out again this weekend!
3. We had an adventure day! On Tuesday Poata was sick and really didn't want to go to work so I told him that he could take the day off if he took me to Cake Couture, a cupcake shop in Aina Haina that I have been dying to go to, he obviously would rather get cupcakes then work so that's what we did and it turned into an adventure day. Our fist stop was Cake Couture and they were AMAZING! I even said that I should just resign from baking because I can never make my cupcakes as good as them, but I'm not resigning I just have to work really hard to make them better, or at least as good! Then instead of driving the normal boring way home we drove through Waimanalo, Kailua, Lanikai and on to Kaneohe and we made every tourist stop on the way. SO. MUCH. FUN. We did a little dream house hunting in Lanikai then we ate at this little cafe/deli called Kalapawai and it was delish! We also stopped at the Halona Blowholes and sandy beach, super windy and super beautiful!
4. I started a NEW BLOG! I obviously love baking so I started a blog just for my baked goods and their recipes of course! I hope you'll check it out and become a follower and make some of the yummy treats! The address is:
http://www.beachfrontbakery.blogspot.com

We met a Luka but he was a Luca

2010-04-23T16:33:00.001-07:00

We went to the beach, Alligators of course and there was a cute little boy. We said hi to the cute little boy, we asked how old he was. He counted for us. All the way up to 8! He made us soup (sand in a bucket with some fresh salt water swirled around with a shovel and mmmmmmm mmmmm yummy soup). Then we asked his name. Luca! Wait what, how did you know my son's name?? No wait, what, your son's name is Luka too! Wait Luca. Crazytown. I mean Luka/LucaTown. And wait... you live right by me! Like 1 road over! FUN

swingtime fun

2010-04-23T16:23:00.000-07:00

okay so in my last post I mention a video of Luka laughing in his swing. For some dumb reason it didn't upload soooo here it is =) hopefully.

Paradise...

2010-04-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

Luka is and has been eight months for a while but I'm just getting around to putting up his sandy eight month pics. I can't believe how amazing this little man is! He just surprises me everyday with the things he can do! He is so funny too! He has such a sense of humor! And he is EXTRA sneaky! When he gets into things he can't have or he crawls to somewhere he shouldn't he is smart enough to know and to look back at me with the sneakiest of faces! And he even smiles and laughs! AND CRAWLS FASTER! He is standing on his own for longer and longer each day and he is starting to put more syllables together and he can say dada really well now, even when we ask him to sometimes! He is such a smart little boy! And along with his guitar playing he has started to sing! He picks up the guitar or ukalele and starts humming weird little songs! AND he even sang along in church during the sacrament hymns! And by sing I mean mumble and hum weird noises but it is extra cute! And in other news I'm in LOVE with RED VELVET cake, well you know what I mean, cupcakes. It was never my favorite before, I'm a chocolate lover! But supposedly red velvet is a chocolate cake but I don't think one teaspoon in a recipe should count as being a chocolate cake but anyways it's my new favorite! And I think I've started a new red velvet fan club because my red velvet cupcakes are now Poata and my mom and donnie's favorite too! Poata calls them my "signature" cupcakes, he is so funny sometimes! Anyways here are some pictures and a funny video of Luka swinging in his swing in our yard, which he OBVIOUSLY loves!! Oh yeah and p.s. I think I'm going to change the way I write out my posts, I was reading a friend of mines blog and she numbers her ideas so she doesn't ramble and I really like that because I obviously ramble, but I forgot to do it this time lol so maybe next time.

The Crazies

2010-04-16T01:08:00.000-07:00

The crazies =)

the boys
the girls

me and poata <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zpvXg2eBVa4/S8ghbBaZJ8I/AAAAAAAABGk/3RgUKw5gpt4/s1600/IMG_1682.JPG">
megan and luka =)
Luka standing... ALL. BY. HIMSELF. !!!!! He can do this for about a minute or so now!!! He is amazing!

Today we had a super fun day with lots of visitors! First Megan came over to say hi and invite us to a party at her house this weekend. Then Rama and Ky came over to hang out. Then Jai and Leah came over to see us. Then Poata got home from work. Then my mom and Donnie came over. So yeah pretty much we had a party/ photo shoot evening. Super fun to have us all in one spot. I love family!

THREE YEARS!

2010-04-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

It was our THREE YEAR wedding anniversary yesterday (April 14th 2010)!!! We are still soooo much in love! And probably happier today than we were three years ago! We have grown so much in the past three years! We have learned a whole new meaning of responsibility and we have changed so much for the better. Looking back on the three years we have been married I realize how very lucky I am to have such an amazing husband! I realize that we have not gotten in one single big fight!! I realize how many times I've gotten flower and rose bouquets "just because." I realize how much he cares for me and cares for Luka. I realize what a hard worker he is. I realize that I couldn't be any happier and couldn't imagine my life without him! We had an awesome anniversary this year! We had other plans for it but we threw those plans out the window and switched it up a little and made them even better! Our old plans consisted of Poata buying me a present and me buying him one and us staying at a hotel in Waikiki and staying in town all day then going out to dinner. INSTEAD we bought an OCEAN KAYAK!! We have been wanting one for quite some time now but never had the money for one. We had saved a little for our fun day in Waikiki and the hotel room and what not and we were shopping around a few days before our anniversary and saw an ocean kayak and realized it was the exact amount we had saved for our fun day and also realized that we could have TONS of fun days if we put our money to that instead so we did it!! and we are SOOOO STOKED!! So our new anniversary plans obviously consisted of going out on our new kayak all day! So we woke up and Poata made me breakfast in bed (Belgian waffles with lehua blossom honey and bananas and veggie sausages and blueberry pomegranate acai juice) then we got ready and went to Hukilau Beach to Kayak. We bought Luka a baby life-vest. It was pretty windy so we didn't stay out long. Luka loves the water but not necessarily the water splashing vigorously in his face. But he was a trooper. We went in and watched Poata go out alone and he flipped over twice lol. He then came in too and we all took a nap on the beach. I got a little bit of a tan =) Then we headed home and got ready to go out for dinner. We went to Lei lei's for dinner and it was delicious of course! The best part about it though was that I knew every single server working that night and they all took turns walking Luka around the restaurant so that we got to have a romantic evening! It was so sweet of them! and so nice for us for a change! We came home and put Luka to sleep and enjoyed the red velvet cupcakes I made for Poata. THE END. <3 <3 <3

Spring

2010-04-11T23:53:00.000-07:00

At church

Priscilla and I had a mommy and son shopping day! Super fun and our boys got to ride in these silly race-car strollers. They loved them!

My Easter cupcakes: coconut cupcakes with haupia filling.

Luka at our Easter Brunch.
Savanna, my little sissy
Donnie
Jai
chai tea cupcakes with a orange cinnamon buttercream
Luka and I at Poata's rugby practice
Luka and I at Lui Buenos. FINALLY a good Mexican restaurant in Haleiwa!!
Luka with some of his Easter goodies.

Luka's grandma Jenna and grandpa Donnie got him this tool set to be like his dad and he loves it!!

Luka just woke up here and was so happy even though he had a messy bed head =)

Spring... Here in Hawaii spring isn't much different from other seasons. It has been raining on and off lately but I can't say that doesn't happen in every other season here. But when the rain is off we are on our way to the beach! or to Luka's kiddy pool. I guess Spring is different because we have Easter. We had a great Easter with Luka! We woke up and turned on the t.v. to watch general conference. Then of course I had some cupcakes to make! The turned out awesome! Probably my best yet. I made coconut cupcakes with a haupia (hawaiian coconut pudding) filling and buttercream frosting tinted easter colors. Then we gave Luka his Easter basket. He had a lot of fun throwing the plastic eggs ALL over our house! Next year I probably won't give him sooo many plastic eggs! He also got a bunny stuffed animal and some other toys and goodies in his basket. I know he won't remember getting a basket this year but I just wanted to start the tradition for him. I didn't dye eggs though which is usually a huge tradition of ours! A pretty competitive tradition actually. But I thought that might be a little messy with a very grabby little boy! But next year we will for sure! Anyways we had a brunch at my house for Easter. My mom, Donnie, Jai, Savanna and a family friend of ours, Ashley came over for the feast! It was super fun and the food was super good! We also had some virgin pear bellini's and mimosa's (sparkling apple cider with pear nectar or orange juice- very yummy!) I made whole wheat walnut pancakes and scrambled eggs and cupcakes, my brother made scrambled tofu, my mom made home fries with white potatoes and purple sweet potatoes and Donnie made a family recipe fruit salad with hand whipped whip cream. Everything was awesome! I felt like it was Thanksgiving! Luka had fun eating his gerber food but he at least got to eat with us in our little circle in the living room. I love Spring because I know summer is coming and although the weather doesn't seem to change much with each season the waves on the other hand do! Summer means flat lake-like water, PERFECT for my little Luka! I can't wait!!

Lately...

2010-03-28T00:49:00.001-07:00

These are cookie monster cupcakes that I made for a pot luck that we went to this weekend. (My brothers girlfriends sisters birthday party in Waikiki)
Luka with his new ukalele from uncle Jai.
This is my step-dad Donnie's guitar, he even yells for Donnie's guitar when I go over to my mom's house. It's the first thing he notices when we get there.
Poata and Luka at Haleiwa Joe's for dinner a few nights ago.
With Grandpa Donnie at alligators

At Alligators with Grandma Jenna (Jema: my mom's grandma name, like jlo but Jema lol) and Grandpa Donnie.

At the library in the toy bucket =)

So lately we have been spending a lot of time with my mom and it has been sooooo nice! I can't tell you how much I love having family near by! For a while Poata and I were the only members of either of our families on this island and it was pretty lame. Now we have my mom, and step dad, my brother, little sister and cousin Rama! It is so much fun! Jai usually comes over on the weekends and Rama and her boyfriend Ky usually come on their days off of work. My mom on the other hand comes over almost everyday and if she doesn't come to my house I go to hers. She lives right at three tables so it's really convenient! A couple of days ago Luka and I took a walk over to her house and surprised them. We had our usual walk to alligators and back to our house but the day was so beautiful that we didn't want to go back home just yet so we just kept walking and we ended up at my moms house. My mom and I have also been shopping quite a few times which as you all know is my favorite thing to do! Especially when it's with my mom =). We also took Luka to the library for the first time! It was so much fun! They have a whole "kiddie" section with stuffed animals and mini tables and everything. We have been going to the beach a lot too. The waves are starting to settle down as it gets closer to summer and I can't wait for those perfectly flat summer days at Waimea Bay to take Luka in! He is such a little water baby. He loves taking baths and even tries to climb in the bath tub all by himself now! He crawls to the bathroom then stands up holding on to the tub, then lifts up one leg and tries to climb in, it is so cute! He is so strong! Oh and by the way he is EIGHT months now! He is a professional crawler and is moving on to bigger and better things, he is trying to move around while holding onto things like the couch or his crib. He is also saying mama and dada! Poata and I spaz out every time he says either. We look at each other with a big eyed crazy face but really we mean did you hear that?? He still has no teeth but I'm not really looking forward to nursing with him having teeth anyways. He absolutely loves his dad! When Poata gets home from work everyday Luka beams! He has the cutest smile and is totally ready to start playing. He loves to play with his dad, especially with the guitar! He is OBSESSED with guitars. I don't remember if I have already mentioned this but he plays the guitar like a little rock star! If he see's the guitar somewhere he will either yell until you give it to him or wiggle his way out of your arms so he can crawl to it. My brother bought him a little ukalele so he could have one his own size and he loves it! He is too funny! Another funny thing he did the other day was yell at me! Poata had just finished drinking a bottle of cocacola and Luka really wanted some so Poata put the lid back on and gave the bottle to Luka to play with. I didn't realize the lid was on it so I yelled to Poata to take it away from him, so he did. Luka, sitting back towards me, turns around and yelled at me, "eaaahhhh waaah eeuu raauuuwwwhhh" translation: "Mom! WTH Let me have that! Mind your own business!" It was hilarious! Anyways He is just the best thing that has ever happened to us! He is so much fun to be around and he cracks us up all the time! He just amazes us with his strength, intelligence and sense of humor, yes he has a really good sense of humor. Here are a few pictures of our adventures lately.

Par-tay =)

2010-03-13T23:25:00.000-08:00

Really awesome balloon guy! Made Luka Elmo and me a tiffany key (they are my new obsession)
Luka making his new silly face with his elmo balloon
Koa blowing out his candles
All of the mommy's! I can't believe we all had babies around the same time! So cool!

This was the first picture but it kept growing! So many of us have children now.
The borthday boy with his mommy, Priscilla
Merekete's cutie.
The little Tamangaro family.
Jennifer and Nona-Vee
Luka with his "team mate" Roaden.

Walking into the party =)

A turtle at Alligator's yesterday.
Luka ready to go to the movies
Me and Poata taking Luka on a walk on Ke Nui on the bike path.
Luka loving his guitar.
At the body boarding contest

Today was Luka's bestie Koa's first birthday! It was so much fun to see my friends and their babies, it's funny to see how "grown up" we all are now! The party was "sports" themed so we got Luka a little soccer jersey and shorts. His other little friend Roaden had the exact outfit on, it was like they were a little team, so cute! The party was a blast and Luka was such a little "fun haver" in Poata's words. I said aka he had fun but Poata said no, he was a fun haver lol. I cannot wait for Luka's first birthday party! His is going to be construction themed. It's pretty much planned already even though I have about 5 more months to go. Anyways here are a few random pictures from this past week and a bunch of pictures from the party today. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention Luka is definitely going to be a famous guitar player!! He absolutely LOVES playing the guitar. Poata's favorite thing to do to relax is grab the guitar and play a few songs, sometimes even until he falls asleep with guitar in hand lol. He has played the guitar for Luka since he was born. Luka will crawl from across the house if he see's the guitar. He then kneels or stands against it and strums it! All by himself! He sometimes sings along (yells along) and it entertains him forever! And when Poata plays it and Luka hears it he stops whatever he is doing and crawls over to his dad and starts strumming it, interrupting Poata's song. The other day Poata said to me, Hunny can you please take him, I havn't played an entire song in soooo long! So we borrowed Donnie's (my other dad) guitar so they can both play =) It's really awesome that Luka is so interested in the guitar because Poata plays, both of my dad's play, and Poata's dad plays! I'll get a new video up of him playing one of these days.

Videos

2010-03-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

A few videos mainly just of Luka laughing and me having a mega-loud voice.

Alligators

2010-03-07T00:21:00.000-08:00

I think I've mentioned Alligator beach in previous posts but I really love this place!! Luka and I walk there daily and it does not get old! It is so beautiful and changes all of the time! Some mornings we will see turtles, some mornings we see giant black and red crabs, some mornings we see whales jumping and sometimes there are beautiful shells on the sand, sometimes the waves are huge and there is some surfing to watch but some days the water is flat and crystal clear. Alligators has become one of my favorite places to be! I think Luka agrees with me on this one. He loves the sand, the water and the action. It's nearly impossible to get a good shot of Luka when I set him on the sand, usually he loves to pose for the camera and he knows the meaning of "smile" so he will usually give me a big grin to take a shot of but put him on a pile of sand and there are a lot better things he wants to be doing than looking up for me but I managed to get a couple of him to represent his seventh month. Yeah that's right, Luka is 7 months! I can't believe it! He is crawling like a pro now! It is so cute! He follows us from room to room and destroys! He can get into pretty much anything now with the combination of crawling and standing. It's really fun to watch him though. He has also been trying to talk a lot lately. He says mama but he is still working on his next word, his words are starting to sound more and more like real ones. He is starting to eat a lot of baby foods now. It is so fun to see his facial expression when he tries a new food. Peaches was his best expression yet. And he hates papaya. Anyways here are some pictures of our beloved Alligator beach and some random pictures of this week.

Life of a 6 month old

2010-02-24T22:40:00.000-08:00

Driving to the beach for Luka's 6th month celebration =) I later made a cake and we sang happy birthday lol
Dogtown baby. My dad got him this onsie.

silly kid

Luka and daddy hanging out with his bestie Koali'i and his dad
chilling by the pool
cutest baby ever

Ocean
Ocean and Luka
Ocean and Luka in Luka's new pool
My Valentines Day. Best hubby ever!
Strawberry cupcakes w/ triple berry frosting
My uncle Jon with his daughter Sterling and my Luka.
Sterling
Ocean

Luka is 6 months old! He has been for almost a month, he is almost 7 months so before he turns a month older I have to blog about his 6Th month. He is growing like crazy, one of his nurses said I have high octane breast milk. He is over the one hundredth percentile for his weight and height and he is in the 58Th percentile for a one year old for height and weight! He is crawling now and standing up in his crib and starting to get into all of the things he is not supposed to be touching. His personality grows each day and he is so much fun to be around! He officially said his first word! And of course it's mama!!! He has said it a few times now and I feel overjoyed each time. Luka is really cuddly with me and he loves to play with his dad. Poata is the best dad I have ever seen! He loves to carry Luka and kiss him and play with him, he does anything for Luka. He always wants to take him along no matter where he is going. When he leaves for work he asks if he can take Luka with him, I answer that it's fine with me but I don't think your boss would appreciate it and I don't think you'll get much work done and Poata gets so disappointed because he doesn't want to be away from Luka all day. The day Luka turned 6 months we took him to the beach and got him wet in the ocean for the first time. He didn't love it but he didn't hate it so we tried again a few days later and he loved it. We go to the beach pretty regularly now and he splashes around in the water and smiles and talks to the waves, it's a ton of fun! Now that he can get wet I can too! It had been a while for me. This month has been really fun because my mom moved back to Oahu! She was visiting almost every other week to see Luka so she decided to just move back. She lives less than 5 minutes away, Poata walked Luka there a couple of days ago to surprise her. She has so much fun with Luka and buys him new toys all of the time, she even has a set of toys, a baby bathtub and a diaper changing kit at her house just for when we visit her there. She is the best grandma! And because she decided to move back I have decided to go back to school! She said she would babysit so I applied to BYUH for fall semester. I am excited and nervous to go back but Luka will be a year old by the time school starts so I feel pretty confident that I can handle the task and also that he can handle being without me for a couple of hours. We recently had my uncle visit us with his 2 daughters, Ocean (3) and Sterling (1). They are so cute and well behaved. Ocean was hilarious! She wanted to share EVERYTHING with Luka from pringles, cheetos and cookies to juice and soda! I would have him in his walker and her playing and I would turn my back for a second and look back and catch her trying to share random snacks with him, it was bad! But Luka loved having them around! He would be crying about something and one of them would walk in and he would instantly stop crying and start trying to act like a big boy. He has been better at crawling since they left. It was nice to have them here because I had never met Sterling before and they had never met Luka. It was a short stay though, just 2 days. We had a really good Valentines Day, I woke up with 2 vases of roses at my doorstep, one from Poata and a smaller one from Luka with a little card saying " To mommy thanks for everything! Love, Luka." It was such a cute idea! Then I made Poata breakfast in bed, a Mexican style omelet with rice. Then I baked some cupcakes of course and later my brother and his girlfriend Leah stopped by then we went to eat at Auntie Pastos and a friend of mine was our server. Dinner was so good and Poata was so good to me. He was romantic and sweet all day. Lately I have been baking a lot and it is so much fun for me! I love making cupcakes! I usually bake a batch each time the previous batch disappears. I am thinking about starting another blog for my cupcake recipes. I have been experimenting a lot with new recipes and additions to old recipes and it has been a lot of fun and Poata has been a very happy husband. I recently made chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolate chocolate chip frosting and chocolate macadamia cupcakes with strawberry frosting, strawberry cupcakes with triple berry frosting and pumpkin pecan cupcakes with cinnamon ginger frosting to name a few. We have nicknamed Luka cupcake because he cracks up when you say the word. It is so funny! Anytime you want to make him smile you just have to say cupcake in a silly voice. When I bake I have my back facing him so I do a little dance and say shake shake shake and turn around and say cupcake and it keeps him entertained while I'm whipping up a batch of cupcakes. He has a bunch of other nick names too; little man, rumble pants, monkey, Luka Buka and Luka Badooka but cupcake is a favorite among both me and Poata. Here are some pictures of Luka's 6Th month, enjoy.