Shane's Stuff

2009-07-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Nixis had a wonderful birthday...well...birthdays. He had one birtdhay in Laie with the family. It was a very small traditional cake and icecream birthday.

We opened gifts...

and sang!

For his 2nd birthday, we took Nixis to Discovery Center. It was sooo much fun!

He went backstage with daddy to run the lights in the theatre.

Also played the role of pig with mommy as a bear and Kalia as a giraffe!

This was a MUST!

After discovery center, we went to the park to eat pizza and an icecream cake...it got a little smashed on the way to the park.

We also brought some cardboard to go hill sliding...that was fun too!

At the end of the day...Nixis slept for hours. I think he had fun!

He's growing way too fast!

2009-06-25T02:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was making Nixis a coloring wallet (pix to follow) and he was in the room with the daddy watching T.V. when all of sudden he came out to the living room where I was, looked up at me and said, "Good night" and at first, I didn't know what he said so when I didn't pay much attention to what he said, he stood up on his toes and said, "kiss". Gave me a kiss and rushed back to his room to sleep. He's such a big boy...I'm sad! Time for another...??

It's due time!

2009-06-17T19:36:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since my last post...I really need to get better at this so that it's easier to document. So much has happened since...not much picutures taken though.

Sam and Kalia moved in. They stay with us off and on. The company is fun and crazy. Nixis LOVES Kalia. When she is home, I don't see him (even though we are in the same house).

Kanoa and I have been busy working, serving in our callings, and running tons of errands.

Nixis finally went to his first dental appointment back in May. Yes, we are a little late but we had problems with the insurance coverage...he loved their salt water aquarium. That, of course was the highlight of his visit. For mom, it was that he had great teeth with no cavities!

Today, I took Nixis to the Discovery Center and he had a blast! I had to bribe him with a toy in order to get him to leave! We had a lot of fun and will probably take him back for his birthday! He played in the batting cages...

Drove the City Bus...

Worked on a car as a mechanic...

Went to the eye doctor and chose his style eye glasses...

They also had a bank, post office, doctors office, things to learn about the Human body, a library a court house, a newsroom, theatre...you name it they had everything. It was a fun day!!

It's family time!

2009-05-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

Did I mention we took another trip to the Big Island? Ha-Ha! We had to take advantage of Nixis being a lap child before June! We did a lot but mostly just spent time with family, played in the yard, went bike riding, exercised...ate a lot!!

Nixis had a blast yet again playing in the yard, running around with the kids (especially Caius). He just loves/hates the animals. He loves looking at them...from a distance!

Mom made me cook sweet potato haupia pie, which didn't turn out as well as it normally does but nevertheless it was gone in no time. That desert takes 4 hours to make! Mom also asked for help making a scrap book for NOP to have handy and to show what kind of things a foster child could expect if they were to ever be relocated to mom and dad's home. It was a lot of fun discussing captions for the pictures and taking a lot of action shots! I did not get pix of the book but it turned out pretty good considering I have no experience with scrapbooking!!

For mothers day I helped Moses clean his house for his wife. We took out that horrible book shelf, busted it up, painted it and made really cool shelves for the wall. Then, we purchased a couch cover, a coffee table that dubs as a chest (to hide the childrens' stuff) and some flowers. The house looked made over! My little service project for the week! :) Then, I had mom teach me how to make a snowman out of Ivory snow. She used to make these every year for Christmas and we can't let go of it. It's too much fun and so cute. Plus, it makes the house smell good!

More family...Kekai and family came down and rented the Beach house so Dad, Moses, and Caius came down for the weekend to check it out. It was sooo nice. Dad could finally spend time with his great grand children who recently turned one. They are dolls! Nawai kept hugging Nixis!

We had to get a pix of the two moks around my haole sister!!

Deanna and Aunty Sista spent time at the house too! Always nice to spend time with the mainland family!! Erin, Dee, and I was cruising on the patio looking at the ocean on this beautiful sunday afternoon!

Of course, bar-b-que was on the menu!

The beach house has a hammock outside so we just had to try it! Nixis loves his cousins Caius and Kalia!! It's hard to get hime to what I want when they are around!

After the beach house the family is heading over to the Big Island to spend a week up there...wish another trip was in the budget or on the schedule...next year, I guess! :)

time to catch up

2009-04-23T10:10:00.000-07:00

Okay...it's been a long time since I last posted...almost 3 months...busy times! Since our 5th year anniversary Nixis and I took another trip to the Big Island.

It was fun...Sam and his girlfriend, Erin came up and we all drove to Kona to watch Caius and mom's foster boys play rugby. It was soooo exciting!

After the game we took a dip in the beach and had a little rugby game of ourselves. Boys against girls. It was a little gloomy but so nice and warm!

It rained most of the days we were in Hilo but that didn't stop the kids from having fun!

I came home first and Nixis stayed with Grandma and Papa for a few days until they came to honolulu for a doctors appointment. The longest 3 days of our lives. It allowed both Kanoa and I to work without having to worry about getting a sitter.

After grandma and grandpa left...I can't even remember the days until Easter. It's been that crazy busy. I made these baskets for my visiting teaching sisters out of the lunch bags they sell at walmart. They were actually left over from the Valentines bags...gave me another reason to whip out the cricut!!

Then I made these baskets for the Primary teachers and music leaders. It contains a CD with "I know that My Redeemer Lives" on it.

Then...we can't forget the kids! Shawna and I coordinated a last minute Easter Activity for the Primary children. We made felt baskets for all of the children to use for the easter hunt and the paper bags were to hold the eggs they colored. Jade did tatoos and we ate and had lots of fun!

5 Years!

2009-03-01T20:48:00.000-08:00

I can't believe we've been married 5 years! We just had to celebrate...

We dropped Nixis off with Aunty Kahi and we were off to Roys for dinner. It was our first time there. The service was spectacular and the food was delicious!

Kanoa had the butter fish.

And I enjoyed sushi...The Dragon and Panther Roll. I can't tell you all that was in the Dragon sushi but it did have unagi, which I love! The Panther roll had slices of Filet Mignon, salsa and all kind of other additions...the waiter explained it to us but there were just too many things in both rolls. Needless to say they were so yummy!

I also had the ever so safe California Roll...although this one was made with real crab! Then...we just HAD to top dinner off with desert!

Kanoa had the Upside Down Pineapple Cake with caramel gravy accompanied by vanilla bean icecream sitting in a candied waffle cup.

I had what they are known for and my favorite dessert ever...the Chocolate Souflette. It was served next to a smere of raspberry gravy and accompanied by vanilla bean icecream...the same as the Upside Down cake! Yum-my!

We really did enjoy our evening out to celebrate our 5th year of marriage. It was so nice, I can't wait for the next milestone anniversary!

Valentines!

2009-02-19T10:31:00.000-08:00

Finances were low so Kanoa and I had a very nice dinner in. He did, however make me a very cute Vday card for me. This is sort of becoming a tradition for holidays in our home and I think it's much sweeter than a store bought card because I know he's so last minute but he still gets it done, even if it is 4am in the morning before he leaves to work.

I had some Valentines supplies sitting in the cabinet since we did not use them for the V-day playgroup activity so we decided to make a couple of goodie bags and hand them out to neighbor and friends after dinner.

We made fan bags out of the very inexpensive lunch bags they sell at wallmart (5 for a $1) and put valentine shaped chocolate candies in them (candy molds).

It's funny...Kanoa was worried this Valentines would not be as special being that we didn't have much money to spend on this holiday but it ended being one the best Valentines we had so far! It was fun to make these goodie bags and we had even more fun delivering them to neighbors and friends!!

Crazy

2009-02-07T16:24:00.000-08:00

I feel like a crazy head...It's been awhile since my last post and Shawna just reminded me of that today so because Kanoa and Nixis is celebrating Nixis' cousins birthday today in Hau'ula I thought it would a great time to catch up with things that I enjoy! We just finished our third Waipiolani Playgroup activity this year. The first was a girls night, the second a trip to the zoo, and this morning we had a Valentines get-together at my house...although we mainly just sat around and talked story...we did however play with the cricut and made Jen an anniversary card for her husband!

The Zoo was a lot of fun, especially the petting Zoo. It put Nixis straight to sleep in the car! He was pooped after a long day of running around the Zoo!

I just had to take a picture of this salamander thingy...it was so wierd looking. I've never seen it before...thought it was interesting. It as in the reptile cave displays!

We also had card making night for a Relief Society activity and you know I had to show off the cards I made! I would not be capable of cards like these if someone wasn't there to take me through how to make them step by step!

I have also been working hard this week on putting together our "Great to be 8" activity for Primary. So far I've done all the invitation (with the help of the Cricut). I've chosen to use a matchbook style invite incorporating primary colors (red, yellow, blue), which will be the theme of the party being that we are putting this together a little late so we thought this might be the easiest and at the same time, would still be very nice!

A week after our "Great to be 8" activity we are due for our first quarter primary activity and since I won't be there (I'm taking yet another trip to the Big Island because the airfare is really good now), I told my first counselor that I will make sure she is set and I'm making the invites for that activity too! We are putting together care packages for our local elders serving on missions so I thought it would be cute to make missionary shirts with the invite tucked in the back! The tags say "You're Invited" on top of the The Chuch of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints just as it says on a real missionary tag.

2009-01-20T12:32:00.001-08:00

Just got back from the big island. Nixis and I had a blast. We went for a week while Kanoa worked the Sony Open. When that time comes around, Kanoa camps at work for a week so I thought it would be a great time to visit the family!

We went to the Zoo where dad is forever touching the animals! Nixis enjoyed himself!

The Zoo in Hilo is in the midst of a rainforest so there are tons of different trees and plants. One among them was this wierd looking plant that when blossoms, it smells like rotting flesh! Thought that was pretty interesting!

We went bike riding, played volleyball, and ate like crazy! Dad made delicious Prime Rib and I made a sweet potato haupia pie for desert! It was sooo good...even 5 pounds later! It's time to work off the vacation!!

2009-01-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

New Years came and went! The New Year just started and already I cannot keep up with the time. We went to Laie but quickly had to retire Nixis indoors as he was diagnosed with Bronchialitis just the day before. It's a bad head cold with weezing so the smoke was definately not recommended.

Kanoa and I!

Ana and Tony

Like and Marie

After Nixis went to sleep we played the Newlywed game (there were actually 3 more couples playing too)...Kanoa and I did not do good! The couples ranged from about 1 to 20 years! It was a lot of fun!

Nixis was due for another cut so I took him to Pigtails and Crewcuts in Moanalua shopping center. It was such a cute little salon. They really cater to the children. He could choose from an airplane, police car, fire truck and a taxi cab. They also had Kung Fu Panda on to help distract him. I was very happy with his hair cut!

Since the new year, Kanoa has been working like crazy preparing for the Sony Open so the first sunday of church was really crazy for me trying to tend to Nixis while conducting primary and teaching Sharing Time...especially since Nixis refuses to go to Nursery! Of course, I'm very thankful to the members of the ward to so graciously helped out!!

Where do I start?

2008-12-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

"Shanes" is our name! My name is Jo-Shane, my husband's name is Shane Kanoa, and my son's name is Nixis Shane. We had to give him the name too! I finally decided to create a blog because I really did have such a great year and it was time to keep a record of it! I should've started earlier as Nixis is already 18 months. So, I thought a great way to start would be to share our 2008!

We started the year off by taking one of many trips to the Big Island to visit Grandma and Papa. Nixis was only 7 months!

We were ever so grateful to Kanoa for letting us take a trip and for grandma and papa for watching baby while we made a trip up to maunakea for some fun in the snow with Moses, Sam (my two brothers), Nue (sis-in law), Jahnikki, Kalia, Caius, and Keoni (nieces and newphews).

Next thing we know we were celebrating Nixis' first birthday in June, combined with Kekai's (my brother) vowel renewel at Kakela Beach park. This was for the Jerome's celebration. My brother and his family live in Arizona so we made this party a Hawaiian Honu theme.

Of course then we had to have the Yamauchi celebration also at Kakela. Nixis was lucky enough to have two 1st birthday parties! Both were soooo much fun! This one was a football theme to satisfy dad!

Took another trip to the Big Island in July to celebrate Grandma's birthday. Moses and I had a bake off to see who could make the best looking cake for mom. Not bad considering we had almost nothing to work with and no time. My cake is a "G" by the way, and Moses made a "wen" to complete "Gwen". His frosting was "supposed" to be black...I win!

Then we came home to celebrate Papa's birthday at Tsukiji fish market. All you can eat..we closed the restaurant down! Ha!

Can't forget the church activities. Labor day family fun fest. We were stoked we could go as a family. I missed it last year and this year was the last year the church would be putting it on so I was glad I was able to make it this year.

Nixis got his first hair cut in yet another trip to Hilo. It was horrible. The hairstylist was great, he just wouldn't keep still!

Took Nixis to the Pumpkin patch in October. We tagged along with Zui and Jen. Thank goodness for Zui. He fetched us some great pumpkins for Halloween!

Nixis was a missionary for the Halloween playgroup activity, where we ate, the children paraded in their costumes, and I won a Godiva chocolate gift certificate from a drawing after participating in the playgroup blog!

We always get so excited for Halloween. Nixis can never be just one thing. He was also a samoan chief for the trunk-or-treat at the chapel but then switched back to his missionary constume once it got a little cold! After that we caught up with family in Mililani to check out the trick-or-treating in their neighborhood.

I don't know what I did with the pictures from our early Thanksgiving trip to the Big Island and we didn't take any pictures for Thanksgiving in Laie but it was filled with lots of love and games. We played Tabu and Mormon Mouthful with the sisters. It was a crack up!

December is my favorite time of the year. This is when we actually have the motivation to do sooo much in just one month. This year is even more exciting for us because Nixis is old enough to enjoy the decorations, the lights, the gifts, etc!

We started the Christmas season by taking a stroll to the Visitors center one sunday while in Laie spending time with the family! This year they decorated the Visitors center with a tree from each stake around Oahu. I took a picture of Kanoa and Nixis in the front of the Mililani stake christmas tree. All of the trees were sooo nice!

On my birthday, I woke up to one of Jen's thoughtful signs. She did this for us when we brought Nixis home and I just thought it was the cutest thing.

Had a relaxing day doing things on my own time since I took the day off from work. Walked with Andria, went home to fix dinner then met back up with the Tupolas to check out the Christmas lights in Mililani where Jen and Zui was at Zui's dad's house. Their house looked so cool all decorated!

We celebrated my birthday a day after by walking through waikiki. Waikiki is so nice dressed up for the holidays. Royal Hawaiian Shopping center went through a big renovation this year so it was cool to see the new stores. We ate at the new food court, walked to beach walk to have Red Mango yogurt (soooo good), then strolled back on Kalakaua where Nixis qawked at the gold and silver guys! After that, we drove to Honolulu Hale to see the city lights! It was such a nice evening. Nixis really enjoyed running around!

Christmas finally came and Nixis enjoyed opening his many presents. He opened them at home, then in Laie and he still has some presents waiting for him on the Big Island. He is truly blessed this Christmas with so many toys (I actually had to put some away for later, to help keep some order in the house). We also took our Yamauchi family picture at the temple on Christmas for games and dinner! The year ended with so much love for our family and the wonderful friends we've made in the Waipiolani Ward. At the end of a year such as this one, I am ready for the new year in anticipation for all that Heavenly Father has in store for us in 2009...the good and the bad! I think! Ha!