Happy 7th Birthday Anna

These are all of her Utah cousins lined up here with her at Jungle Jim's.

I can't believe I am the mother of a seven year old. Time really does fly. It seems like just yesterday when she was born and our eyes met for the first time. I felt such a deep connection to her immediately. That became such a great blessing for me, too because she was such a difficult baby. That deep mother/daughter connection really allowed me to love her unconditionally despite all of the screaming (on her part). =) She is so grown up these days. All of that is past and she has become a sweet, smart, helpful girl. We are lucky to have her strong and bright spirit in our family. Above are some pictures from our celebrations.

SNOW!

This was Joseph's first experience with snow. He was a little shocked, I think. Luckily he had his pacifiers to keep him company. =) There's also a youtube video you can click on if you scroll all the way to the bottom that shows him kind of wandering around trying to figure it all out.

A Warm Winter Day

The weather has been pretty mild since we got here, but Saturday was almost warm. =) It was crazy. Our kids played outside almost all day and some even took off their shoes. Above Anna and Eryn are playing with their cousins out in the backyard. They pulled out lots of blankets and had a great big picnic. Today on the other hand it is snowing, finally. I will post some of those pictures later.

Baby Lily has a Birthday!

I am excited to announce that Lily finally has a birthday picked out. I am set to go in for a c-section on Monday the 15th of December. Joel and I were able to meet with my new doctor here and get a tour of the facilities earlier in the week and we both felt great about everything. It is nice to finally see things falling into place for the birth of our baby and I am so grateful to have a date to plan for.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers. =)

Welcome to Utah

Aren't they so cute? It is so funny for me to see my kids in pants and socks and shoes every day. They are loving the cold weather and seeing family.

Thanksgiving Dinner at Mom and Dad's.

Saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa at the Airport.

Saying goodbye to dear neighbors who we will miss so much.

We have finally made it to Utah. Saying goodbye to friends, family, neighbors and ward members in Hawaii about killed me, though. It was so hard to say goodbye. I felt so grateful for the influence all had been on me and my family and I wish I had more pictures of the goodbyes. I also had a great baby shower thrown for me just before leaving. My good friends Candace and Jenn put that together as a surprise for me which was very nice. They also had everyone give gift cards which was very helpful for packing purposes. =)

Our flight turned out to be a great blessing. We had considered buying me a very expensive first class ticket, just to be sure I was comfortable. But decided against it because of cost. Luckily it didn't matter. The flight was only about half full and I got a whole row to myself. In fact my whole family got to really spread out and lay down for the night flight. So that was wonderful.

Joseph was sick for the flight and continues with some major coughing and now most of us are sick with some form of cough or sinus cold. Hopefully that will get better quickly!

My sister has welcomed us here with open arms. She and my parents have been working very hard to prepare a soft landing for us here and it is so great. She made her basement so warm and inviting for us as a result of a lot of hard labor on her part (setting up cribs and bunk beds, painting, cleaning, moving furniture etc.). She also put together a lot of clothes for my kids donated by ward members and friends. So we feel we are in good hands.

I have been so focused on moving for the past few months that I really haven't had to face what lay for me on the other side of this move. I will admit that I am back to struggling. My life looks sort of like this big gaping hole right now. But I am trying to just take things one step at a time and to not feel guilty about all of the support I am receiving. It's hard for me to not feel like I can do everything on my own and to rely on other people so much. But at the same time I feel grateful and blessed.

Leahi Swim School Fun

Anna and Eryn have thoroughly enjoyed their experience being enrolled in the Leahi Swim School. Both have made significant strides in the water and will dearly miss their super nice, local kine swim instructors, not to mention learning how to swim in an outdoor swimming pool. They are already talking about finding an indoor swimming pool somewhere in Utah to continue living up to the Kongaika name (Kongaika means "part fish" for those unaware). Above: The girls received Leahi Swimmer Medals on their last day.

Crafty Fun

My sister Amy created a new preschool blog. She majored in early childhood education in college, so she shares lots of great children's books, songs and craft ideas. Here's Eryn completing one of the crafts. We both had a great time. Thanks Amy! Here's a link to her blog if you are interested:

www.amy-fun4kids.blogspot.com

Sorry for the problems with the link earlier. The link works now.
Share it with whoever you want.

Big Change & A Big Blessing

Joel and I have decided that in the best interest of our family we are going to move to Utah. So when we go on the 24th of Nov. we will be going for good. It was a hard choice to make, for us, but we both feel really good about it. We feel more confident about the kind of family support and medical care we will receive there. We will miss our life here in Hawaii for sure, but it feels good to make a choice that makes sense for our situation. I look forward to living closer to some of you and especially my parents, my sister and Joel's brother and sister.

Because we are moving, we have been selling/giving away our stuff like crazy. We don't plan on taking anything but the irreplaceable. It is pretty sobering to look at all of the things you own that way. We really do keep a lot of things that we don't use or need. In that way it feels good to simplify.

Getting ready (with lots of help from good neighbors) for the big moving sale.

We decided to hold a moving sale last Saturday (Nov. 1st) just to get rid of our stuff. And as it turns out we were blessed by a very special experience. A very sweet neighbor of ours took it upon herself (after getting our permission) to create a fundraiser out of our moving sale. She passed out flyers to all of our neighbors inviting them to donate items to be sold, and for all of the proceeds to go to the Kongaika family (to help us with our move and medical bills for our baby with spina bifida). The neighbors were all very helpful and supportive as well as our ward members. Lots of people brought items to be sold for the sale, and more came to buy things in support of our family. The sale was very successful, raising a sizable amount of money for us to use toward medical bills. More than that, we felt overwhelmed and extremely blessed by the kindness and generosity of others.

Happy Halloween

Having fun at the trunk-or-treat with some friends.

Here is Anna at her school's Literary Parade. Every year her Kanoelani Elem. holds a parade on Halloween where the children dress up as a character from a book and then parade around school holding their book. I really love it. It is a great way to promote literacy and to put a more educational spin on Halloween.

Here are the kiddos. They had a nice Halloween this year. This picture was taken at a Halloween activity the week before Halloween. Eryn was a Dalmatian, Anna was Snow White and JoJo was Superman. Eryn's costume was a little too small, but she became attached to it so quickly and wore the costume so happily leading up to Halloween, pretending she was a puppy that I just didn't have the heart to return it.

Here is Lily Ruth at 28 weeks. We had a really nice ultrasound of her on Friday. The technician doing the pictures and measurements was so sweet and positive. Lily was putting on a little show just for us. She smacked her lips, yawned and grabbed her toes. We are in love with this precious little girl. Otherwise nothing to tell, except that the dr. is going to start keeping a weekly watch on her progress.