Carnival ideas.

I have been put in charge of our Young Women's fundraiser this year. We are going to be doing a carnival on June 5th from 9am-2pm. Along with our carnival we will be having breakfast from 9am to 11am. So since the day I was officially put in charge of this activity I've been super excited and nervous. This is a huge responsibility because this fundraiser needs to raise enough money to take 30 girls to girls camp. We have the largest group of Young Woman in our stake and it is very overwhelming at times. So you understand why I'm nervous? 30 YW are counting on me to get things put together so that this fundraiser will be a hit!
We come from a financially difficult area. Money definitely does not grow on trees here, so I'm looking for donations. I want to teach our YW that hard work pays off and if we work hard to put on a good fundraiser, we can definitely get them ALL to girls camp!
I am looking for creative carnival games that can be built with little or no money. We've found a couple of games and ideas, but the building of them is what is stopping us from moving forward. I've also found a DJ who will be playing music for us throughout the day. We've found a guy who has a fire engine that he will take the kids on for rides. We found a guy who will donate a large moonwalk bouncer and the woman in our ward are willing to donate bake goods for our concessions stand.
We will also have a raffle. We've found a couple of people who are willing to donate to our raffle, things like a free hair cut, free customized t-shirt and goodie bags. I'm reaching out to the blogging world to see if any of you can donate anything to our raffle or give me ideas on how to promote our carnival, give me ideas on prices I should charge or how to build our booths. If you know of anything or have any great ideas please let me know. Thank you!!
Wish me luck!

Zumba!!

Last week my sister Anna introduced me into the wonderful world of Zumba. It seriously is my new found love. The music, combined with the booty poppin/salsa moves, taught by a "bomb" instructor and the friendly woman in our class, equals FUN!! This is the kind of work out that makes you want to come back. I've heard about it from a lot of people and since I'm not a dancer, never wanted to try it out. But I finally caved in and went for it. I absolutely love it!! Did I say that already? hahaha It doesn't matter if you have two left feet, big/small, or are as stiff as a nail, ANYONE can do Zumba. You just have to enjoy music basically and just move your body any way you feel. The instructor is there to guide you, but if you can't keep up or get lost, just keep moving. It has been an awesome workout for me and my sister and family to go to. I'm excited for the change that will come to my body as I continue taking these classes. My goal is to be as fit as my instructor...hahaha hey it might take me 5 years, but at least I'm striving for it!! Thanks Anna for introducing me to my new found

LOVE Zumba!!!

Happy Birthday Deary!!

SOLOMON LEALAO

S-sweetest gift giver

O-only lover of my life

L-loves to love me

O-overly protective

M-muscular hottie

O-oakland Raiders die hard fan

N-neat freak

L-laid back Hawaiian

E-enjoys sports

A-awesome dad

L-laborer

A-always wants the best for his family

O-optimistic

Happy 31st Birthday dear, I love you!!!

2009 come and gone!!

This year has been such a whirlwind of a year. I had a lot a "firsts" and fell off the wagon a couple of times. The biggest thing in 2009 was my 3oth birthday, crazy huh! I couldn't believe that I was 3o and that I am almost 31...lol! Hey 3o is the new 20 right? At least I don't look it....hahaha!

I have so many memories and good times that

I am thankful for and having lived for 30 years is one of them.

I am grateful for my wonderful husband and children.

I am blessed to come from a wonderful family with parents still married for time and all eternity and siblings who love unconditionally.

I am thankful for my first big calling as the Young Woman counselor, it has blessed me beyond words.

I am surrounded with smiling faces from the time I wake up til I fall asleep. (My children)

I love the Lord and am grateful for those in my family who have taken steps to become closer to Him.

This coming year, I want to reinvent myself physically and spiritually. I want to become a woman of service and charity. I want to learn about, study and know my children individually. I need to be a better organizer of time.

I pray that we all live another year surrounded with those we love and with only those who lift our spirits!!

Goodbye 2009!! 2010 Here I come!

Education.

I got an A in both of my classes this past semester, wooooowhooo!!! I've been in college off and on for the past 10 years, seriously! Both Sol and I have been and have decided that we really need to get serious with our education and finish ASAP. We take turns going to school, but starting January, he'll be full time and I'll support him wholeheartedly til he's done at the U and then it's my turn. Okay, this semester was the toughest one yet for me. I had English and Communication. I thought if I took these classes, they would go hand in hand and it would be easy for me. Nope, I was wrong. I did have to write ALOT of papers, but they didn't even go with each other. This made it very stressful. Writing 2 sometimes 3 papers a week was madness. Both classes were taken online, which made it convenient for me, but hard at the same time. I felt sorry for my family, because I neglected them during this time. I had to learn to prioritize my time with them and to teach them that mommy has school too. I have always loved English and wanted to major in it, but I don't know if I have the passion to write anymore. Life changes and we change along with it, sometimes you remain the same, but most often you learn and grow into new things. I really don't know what I'd like to do, but what I do know, is that I want to graduate from BYU with a degree. This has been my dream since I was a little skinny girl..lol and it still is. But I wanted it to be from BYU Hawaii, and since I know that isn't going to happen, I'll settle for BYU Utah...lol I enjoy learning and pray that my kids will follow me and their fathers example. GOOOOO Me! I'm my #1 cheerleader.

Juniors honesty..lol

So a couple of weeks ago we were scheduled to feed the missionaries. My son's basketball practice was changed to that same night, so I had to find someone with the priesthood to come take my husbands place. The first person I thought of was my dad cause he only lives around the corner. So as my son Junior is setting the table, Jasmine is sweeping the floor, I tell Serena to call grandpa and ask if he'll come over. My son Junior who is setting the table casuallly says, "and mom make sure to tell him to brush his teeth." And he just kept doing what he was doing, all serious and focused. I started laughing hysterically and said, "Junior why would you say that?" He again still focused and serious said, "because when he picks us up for school in the morning, sometimes he doesn't have to time to brush his teeth." I couldn't even control my laughter at this point. I had tears streaming down my face. Junior looks up and says, "mom it's not funny it's sad." I still crack up thinking about that story. If you know my dad, don't laugh..lol j/k Kids are so funny sometimes!

Pictures w/ Kayleen

On the first of this month, we had an appointment with Kayleen to take our family pictures. The last time we took pictures as a family was when we had only our 2 oldest. Three kids and 8 years later we decided to take the opportunity given to us to take them again. My sis Anna was scheduled and rescheduled with her in laws about 5 times, and finally gave up on it and asked me to take the appt. I was so excited because it was such a good deal. Kayleens work is beautiful and I couldn't imagine what or where she would have us go. Kayleen had us meet her at This Is the Place park and we drove about 5 minutes up the canyon to take our first set of pictures. So my sis Anna, her family and mine all got out at and parked on the side of the road. Kayleen had us walk through this beautiful field of waist high golden grass. I knew right then that these pictures were gonna be beautiful.

Let me just tell you that it was 3pm and freezing. My daughter Ebony was whining about the cold and I said, "Beauty knows no pain." LOL (That's a saying Isa would always say to us when we were single and thought we were so cute in our outfits with no coats)hahaha Anyways, we spent about an hour in the field and then went back to the park and spent another hour there. The sneak peek she sent us were ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL!! I'm so grateful that we took the opportunity to work with Kayleen and I would recommend her to everyone.

I told my husband that all I want for my birthday is all the pictures she took of us..lol. We'll see....