Aloha Oe!!

(The Haines Family: Rachael, Chris, Ben, Sam, Joseph and Jacob)

This past weekend was a tough one for the members of the Halawa Ward! We had to sing Aloha Oe to a very loved family!

Aloha Oe is a very beautiful song written by Queen Lili'uokalani in 1878 and we sing it at the end of sacrament anytime a member is leaving our ward. We have already had to Aloha Oe many great friends. It is a beautiful tradition but it is really sad and it seems to just keep getting more and more sad every time we sing it. I usually cry, even if I don't know the person that we are singing to!
Here are the words that we sing, it is only the chorus:

Aloha `oe, aloha `oe
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo
One fond embrace,
A ho`i a`e au
Until we meet again

And this is the translation:

Chorus:

Farewell to you, farewell to you

The charming one who dwells in the shaded bowers

One fond embrace,

'Ere I depart

Until we meet again

See if you can pronounce it correctly then go and listen to the song here, be sure to wait for the chorus so you can know if you pronounced the words right!

(Chris, Ben and Adrian at the goodbye BBQ, Adrian did a fire show for us)

Jared and I have really been dreading this Aloha Oe for a long time now and are going to miss the Haines family! They have become our family out here and have been there for us if we ever needed anything. We have spent Christmas Eve's and Christmas days, New Years eve and most every weekend playing games with them. Whenever Jared was out of town they would have me over for dinner and it was so nice to just spend time with them.

(Joseph who was always asking to hold Kailie)

They love Kailie and always wanted to hold her and were always willing to watch her for us if we needed. Their kids loved her too, I know that Kailie will miss them too!

(Chris during his last surf session, Jared is really going to miss surfing with them)

Aloha Chris and Rachael we will miss you dearly and hope to see you next summer for sure and maybe someday we will reside near each other again! You guys have touched the lives of alot of people out here, I think your Aloha Oe showed that!

(Our last night of playing games together)

It's that TIME again!

( Kailie showing you that her arms are finally longer than her head, Horray!)

Man, it feels like these months are just blowing by! Today is Kailie's 5 month birthday and to celebrate we went SURFING!! WOHOO! It was so absolutely fabulous, it reminded me again how much I like surfing! It was just one of those days where the waves are strong enough to catch super easy but not so strong that you die just getting out! And I finally stood up today, my first time since having Kai!! Love it!

(Our Relief Society Surfing Gang!)

This past month has been a crazy busy one for Kailie and I. We've gone all over this island with fun visitors and now are just ready to relax for a few days.

Kailie has had a few first this month including: rolling over, laughing, standing with out falling forward, talking which she loves to do all day, she has discovered the cute baby in our bedroom mirror that is always willing to play with her, she can grab things, pick them up and of course takes it straight to the mouth. She seems to really love music and tends to fall asleep really fast when it is playing. Her laugh is so cute, but for some reason she will only laugh in the evening! At first, I thought that it was only Jared who could get her to laugh but now it seems that it isn't him but more the time of day! Weird, I don't get it!!

She is so close to sitting by herself.

Kailie in her Easter Outfit!

Tuckered out from playing with her new friend! Looks like her new friend is pretty tuckered as well!!

We are having so much fun with her, I never knew that babies could be so much fun!

I actually really love this stage and I also really love dogs so I was thinking about it and decided that babies are a lot like dogs. All they want is love and attention, food and sleep! They don't talk back! They love you unconditionally, you can basically do what ever you want with them and they just go along with it and you can kiss them all over and they can't push you away and say gross! And lastly they are Always so happy to see you!

The Scary Growl!

I have had a constant sore throat for the past 10 years now and one of the ways I bring relief to my throat is by growling or scratching my throat. So I do this through out the day and after Kai was a couple months old she started to get scared by my growl and gets this huge frownie face. Here is Jared attempting the growl, it is so cute we just had to share!
Are we mean parents? We make our child cry on purpose because we think she is so cute when she cries!

Follow-up to Jared's Parenting!

Let me start this one out with some background. A while ago Jared and I were just leaving a BBQ and I glanced back in the back seat just to make sure we had Kailie. I have this crazy paranoia that I am going to forget her. You know the story "Mom forgets child in backseat" etc.. So I was telling my paranoia to Jared and he was the one who put Kai in the car so he replies "Gina, I am not going to forget our child."

Now lets go to last night. We spent the evening with our dear friends Chris and Rachael Haines who are heartbreakingly leaving the island in a few days. Anyways Jared and I drove separate cars so as we were leaving he said he wanted to take Kai and he was going to stop at a redbox to get a movie. About two minutes into the drive, he calls me to talk since we haven't really seen each other all day and I ask him how Kai is because it is late and she should be already eating and he says that she is fine and hasn't made a peep. So we keep talking and he apparently stopped at another redbox, which is inside a grocery store. As he is walking back to his car he says to me "How is Kai?" I was silent for a few seconds as I am thinking "is he joking, why would he ask me how Kai is doing?" Finally I reply, "What do you mean how is Kai doing? She is with you!" Then nothing but silence for at least 15 seconds ( probably because he was walking back to his car and could not see that she was in there yet, just a guess) then he says "oh she is with me!" He had completely forgotten in the space of about 5 minutes that he had our child with him and had left her in the car while he went into the store. Since Kailie was safe, I thought it was pretty funny and asked him when he would have figured out that he had our child and he said "Probably when I walked into the apt. and saw that you didn't!"

His defence was that he never has Kailie so he is not used to it! All I said to him was now do understand why I am always so paranoid that I am going to leave her somewhere because it is really easy especially when she is sleeping! I pretty much just kept laughing all night and hope now that it scared him enough that he is paranoid too!

Jared's Idea of Parenting!

From the day Kailie was born this is how I almost always find Jared when he is taking care of Kailie. He is sleeping and half the time she is wide awake just chilling!

This day was my favorite because Jared was in charge of dressing Kai as well and if you look closely you will be able to tell that her outfit is on backwards. The front was all buttons, it was pretty funny, she kind of looked like a pilgrim. I guess he better take advantage while he still can because I am sure once she gets older these moments will be few and far between. Is this normal parenting for Dads or is it just Jared because he is so sleep deprived and busy! Although if you hear Jared complaining about never getting to sleep in-- don't feel too bad for him because he chooses to wake up at 5 am to surf on his days off so it is by his own doing that he gets no sleep in days!

3 years

Today is the 3rd anniversary of our first date! I know this because we got married exactly 6 months to the day on Oct 7th, 2006. We can't believe how much has changed in 3 short years. Number 1 we are married, which is still kind of crazy and feels unreal. 2- Jared has lived here in Hawaii for almost 4 years and I have been here 3 1/2. It seriously is so not real that I live here and this is my life. It was all so sudden to me and still feels like a dream. I am always telling Jared that I am ready to move back to the mainland because then it will feel like real life again!
3-We have a baby-which is also crazy for us.
Back to the date, 3 years ago tonight Jared came and picked me up from my hotel room on Pearl Harbor that I lived in for 6 months and then we headed to Haleiwa Joes which is a fantastic restaurant here and everyone here should definitely go. Anyways, after dinner we hiked up to a pillbox overlooking two little islands off the shore in Kailua! Then we came back to his place where we sat on the ground eating ice cream cones. It was definitely the best date I had ever been on and the company wasn't so bad either! :) After that we were pretty inseparable and now here we are today.
By the way, that date was so great that we decided to recreate it my last night here and while we were on the pillbox Jared proposed! It was so fun and we love to recreate it every once in awhile.

April Fools!

Last year for April Fools Day I thought I would be funny and announce to Jared that I was pregnant which he totally believed until I said April Fools but actually the joke was on me. The next morning I woke up and had a feeling that I should take a pregnancy test and we all know how that turned out. Well this year I thought I would post that I was pregnant to all of you but decided against it, because I didn't want to jinx myself.

Kailie and I had a very eventful Aprils fools day with lots of firsts. My cousin Sandy and his family are here so we hiked Diamond Head Crater this morning which was a new experience for both Kailie and I since we borrowed our friend Leah's backpack (thanks again Leah) and Kailie got to ride in it. She cried a little but then slept the whole way down so it couldn't have been to bad. For me, it brought back memories of backpacking, oh how I miss that!

After the hike we headed to the Zoo where Kailie got to see animals for the first time. It was fun, but pretty tiring day. I can't remember the last time that I spent all day standing or walking. I am pooped but Kailie is all hyped up since she slept most of the time.