December Fun!

I love DECEMBER! There is so much that goes on during this month.. Shopping, baking, family time, eating, presents, parties, eating, oh and did I mention EATING?!? and since Jared/ Reefy got me a camera for my birthday I am able to document all of our fun family outings!

Last Thursday we were able to go Christmas shopping (it is so nice to almost be done!) and so we went and ate lunch with PopPop (Great Grandpa) and Grandma Margie and then shopped our little hearts out! It was so fun to pick out everyone's gifts, Jared and I get so giddy and anxious! Reefy was pretty good too, I can see how difficult it can be to sit in stroller and be driven around all day long... : )

Reefy eating a lemon..

Reefy and Grandma

Jared, me and Grandpa

Reef really liked these glasses! haha

We shopped till he dropped! : )

Saturday night was the Avocado Ward Christmas Party. We had yummy BBQ Pit and the cooking interest group (my mom, me, Chris and Merina) made all the rolls and potatoes! We had so much fun and Reef loved Santa... Until he had to sit on his lap!

"Funeral" Potatoes... Yumm!

Some of the 400 rolls made on Saturday

Ward members could sign up to decorate a table..

This one is my mom's!

All the kids with Santa

Reef with Santa!!

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas with Lex, Erika, and the girls because they are leaving for Idaho on Friday. All the older grandkids got to make a gingerbread village with Nama and then they decorated cookies and ate them all up! Unfortunately, I didn't think to take my camera out until after the gingerbread village was decorated, but the kids did it all my themselves, we just put the houses together. Later on that night we read The Story of Christ's Birth and then Santa dropped off a bunch of presents for the girls! We all had so much fun!

The kids with their village!

Reef made the bakery

Reef enjoying his cookie while decorating it!

December Nights!

December is probably my favorite month out of the whole year. There is so much that goes on during December and I love to get into the holiday spirit! So of course I was excited when Mama Margie called and invited Reef and me to go with them to Decemeber Nights!!

Reefy and I went down to Balboa Park with the family so that we could watch Hayley's show choir perform for December Nights! It was absolutely INSANE down there! There were thousands of people walking around and tons of booths for food and shopping, if you've never been, I recommend going just for the experience, BUT I would be ok never going again! haha its just so crazy down there! Anyway, we parked over at Petco Park and took a shuttle over to Balboa, of course Reefy loved that! We got to the Organ Pavillion just in time to watch Hayley sing. It was so good! Music Machine is very entertaining and Hayley did a great job with duet! After the show was over, we were a little cold and tired so we left and went to 7 11 for some slurpees, hot cocoa and candy! Thanks family for a great night!! and Great Job Hayley!!

Tanner, Reef, and Grandpa on the bus

Organ Pavillion

Music Machine

The Girls and Tanner watching Hayley

The Family!

Reef and Grandpa

Mommy and Reef (he was not too excited to take a picture!)

Grandma and Reef

Aunty Hayley and Reefy

Time Out For Mommy!

I had the opportunity to go Time Out For Women (or as I like to put it TOFMommy!) Las Vegas with my Mom, Auntie Ines and sister Erika. I dropped Reefy off at Grandma Margie's which is where he stayed for the weekend. (Thanks mama margie!!) We left on Thursday Oct. 21 and headed straight to the stateline for some shopping at the outlets. We stayed the night at Buffalo Bills and went to the Las Vegas temple in the morning. Unfortunately my recommend had expired and I hadn't gotten a new one so I had to stay outside and read while my family went in.. boo! I did get to read a very good book though, its called "One Tattered Angel" I recommend everyone read this book, it is a heart wrenching, beautiful story of unconditional love! So after the temple we headed to our hotel room to get ready for Friday nights event at the Cashman Center. We had the privilege ofhearing from two incredible presenters...

John Bytheway

AND

Ardeth Kapp

They were both so funny! The theme for this years TOFW was "Infinite Hope" so they both talked about how we can find hope within our families and the church. They also talked about loving ourselves regardless of our imperfections. between each speaker there was a musical presenter...

Dallyn Vail Bayles

He was absolutely incredible! He is currently on tour with Phantom of the Opera and he plays the phantom. He also was in the Joseph Smith movie where he played Hyrum. He sang some amazing songs and if you click on his name above it will take you to his website where you can buy his CD! : ) He also had the opportunity to talk about where he came up with some of the songs he wrote and how each song has played a very significant part in his life. Him and John Bytheway talked a lot about Relief Society and how we as women need to turn to eachother in times of need, we need to help build one another. A quote he shared that I loved was "... Relief Society is an organization dedicated to lifting a weary hand." What better way to describe our RS Organization??

The next day we had to be at the Cashman Center at 8:00 AM. (If there was one thing I could change about TOFW, it would be to make Saturdays event a little later so us mothers can sleep in! hehe) We heard from...

Linda Eyre and Shawni Pothier (Mother and Daughter)

Brad Wilcox

Jill Manning

Mariama Kallon

AND

Kris Belcher

All of them were pretty amazing! Linda and Shawni talked about "The 5 Secrets of Motherhood" which were:

1. Be your own kind of best mom

2. Have a infrastructure

3. Give ownership

4. Formalize Family Traditions

5. Teach your kids to work!

They shared types within those 5 secrets and they also shared a quote (not sure who said it) about cherishing every moment of motherhood..

"The biggest mistake I made was not living in the moment. I wish I treasured the DOING a little more and the GETTING a little less.."

I think at times we all take for granted the blessings of having children, we worry so much about getting things done instead of taking the time to do things with our children...

Brad Wilcox talked about being saved by grace and changing our weaknesses into STENGTHS. He talked a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we (us and Jesus Christ) work together as a team. He reminded all of us to "Take the hand that is extended"

Mariama Kallon was born in Africa and was saved from the rebels on several different occasions. She witnessed the murder of her brother and sister before escaping. She served a mission in SLC and that is how she was able to stay here in the states. She has such a powerful story, she is truly an incredible person. She talked about church being a place of peace and hope.

Jill Manning talked about combating pornography. She is a marriage and family counselor. I was so surprised to find out some the statistics she shared..

86% of youth depict still imaging of naked people while on the internet.

37% of youth depict video of actual sexual contact.

13% of youth depict violent behavior such as rape, molestation, and physical abuse.

She talked about how we all need to make a choice to protect and commit to protecting our families from such horrible things. She talked about being prayerful watchful and careful.

She has been working with Deseret Bookstore to come up with a Media Pledge. If you would like one for your home go to.. www.deseretbook.com/mediapledge. you can download and print one for your home.

Kris Belcher was our last speaker. When she was about 7 months old she was diagnosed with cancer in her eyes. Surgery was performed and she had lost sight in her left eye, over the years she continued to have surgeries due to cancer coming back and is now completely blind in both eyes... She is such a strong and courageous woman. I admire her strength so much. She shared an acronym she made up for LIGHT.

Love

Intelligence

Grace

Hope

Truth

All of those words describe our savior perfectly. She talked about seeking him our and finding him and that there is a reason for joy no matter how hard life can be.

The musical presenters were...

Mercy River

They are three sisters with incredible voices! They sang some beautiful songs and talked about being surrounded by other women and finding empowerment by doing so. They shared that its ok to NOT always be strong, that the Savior is there to lift us in times of need.

After TOFW was over I checked my phone and had a picture of a little indian boy..

My cute little Reefy, exhausted after a night of Trunk and Treating!

Before we heard from any of the speakers, the hostess asked us to write down a "I Hope To..." List.. One of the things on my list was to strengthen my testimony in any way.. I can definitely say that after TOFW my testimony has been strengthened more than I expected. I am so grateful for a Loving Heavenly Father who shows me his tender mercies everyday. I am especially grateful to be a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, without it I don't know where I would be. I am grateful for family who loves me and whom I know would do anything for me. I am grateful for the temple, for the opportunity to be with my family forever. I feel so blessed to be able to go to such an amazing spiritual event. I was surrounded by 1900 other women who all believe the same things I believe, who love the Lord and are all trying to be better wives, mothers, and latter day saints. I can't quite explain the feeling you get when you hear the speakers and the musical presenters. I hope I came home from that experience a little better than before. I can't wait to go next year!

Blogs! Blogs! Blogs!

I'm obsessed! I love to "Follow" other blogs. I honestly cannot get anything done because I have way too much fun looking at all these fun crafty blogs! So, as I was blog stalking.. I mean.. following.. I found this blog called

The Dating Divas! They have so many neat and fun ideas for date night with your husband or just some fun little goodies you can leave around the house for him. I have been thinking about something special I could do for Jared, but I am just not creative enough to come up with something myself, so I am excited to use some of their ideas as examples! Here is one of my favorite ones!

"These are a few of his favorite things" Date

They give ideas of what you can leave for your husband each day and on the last day of the week you make it a date night all about him. They put all of the notes together and made a book.

I am already planning something cute to do for Jared. I will post pics once I do it!

I just had to..

share this picture. Before our walk we noticed this guy in this shirt. It was just too funny to not get a picture of it!

In case you can't see it.. it says..

"Melanoma sucks more than the President!"

Grateful.

The last couple of days have been days of pondering and remembering. I feel like I have so much to be thankful for and I just can't keep it all in. Saturday I had the opportunity to go on the Annual Melanoma Cancer Walk at UCSD. We try to walk each year (although we missed it last year) in memory of my Aunt Cathy. I woke up ready and excited to walk with the family and just spend that time together talking and remembering the good times, and that is exactly what we did. I miss my Aunt Cathy so much, but I feel soo blessed to have had the time we did with her. She taught all of us so much in such a little amount of time. I will never forget the week before she passed, going to San Altos so that she could receive her teaching credential after so many years of working hard and sacrificing so much. There were so many people there to show their love and support for her. I have never been so proud of anyone in my life. She taught me love, endurance, and patience. I thank my Heavenly Father each day for the blessing of her as my Aunt.

Little Jacob with his t- shirt.

The Melanoma walk happened to be on September 11. I felt so proud when we drove down the street from our house and there were tons of flags lined up along the road. I am so grateful to live in this country. I am grateful for our freedom in so many ways. I know, as a country, we don't agree on most things, but one thing we all have in common is our freedom. I am grateful for the freedom I have to go to the church of my choice every Sunday, to stand up for what I believe in and just be able to walk down the street or go to a park with my family. I am grateful for the soldiers who risk their lives and sacrifice their time with family and friends to protect this country. September 11th is a day that will never be forgotten...

Lastly, I am grateful for my health, my family, and most importantly my Heavenly Father. Jared and I had the opportunity to go in to my cousins work for a 3D ultrasound and to find out the sex of our baby early! We secretly wanted a baby boy all along so we were sooo excited when we found out it was a boy! Reefy is going to be such a good big brother and he is already lifting up HIS shirt and saying.. "My baby" while pointing to his belly. We haven't picked a name yet, that is probably going to be the most difficult thing since Jared and I cannot agree on a single name.. haha.

ITS A BOY!

His little arm, nose, eyes and mouth. (I swear his head already looks like Reef's.. scary.. : ))

I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for blessing our lives every single day. He really does answer our prayers and comforts us in times of sorrow or need. I am so thankful that I am a member of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. I don't know, nor do I want to know, where I would be without it. Jared and I are so ecstatic for what lies ahead, it may not be easy, but it will definitely be worth it!

Senator's Wash.. My paradise

So I think i may be a weirdy because I consider the mucky, sandy, hot river my paradise! I have been going there since i can remember and there is just nothing better to me than being on a house boat in Lake Powell or laying out in the water at Senator's wash. it's one of those wonderful childhood memories that you want to relive every summer. We would go with friends and family, take our boat and seadoo's and jetskii's, eat, swim, and just relax in the water. The last time we went was about 5 years ago, and we haven't had the opportunity to go because there has been wedding after wedding and baby after baby. Each year we kept saying we'd go, but it never worked out, BUT we FINALLY got the chance to go in July! I was so excited! It ended up just being my Dad, Mom, sisters, and all the kiddies. I was a little worried about having Reef by myself. There isn't much of a current, but it is still pretty nerve wrecking since he can't swim yet, however, he did soo well! He had a blast just relaxingin a chair in the water. We left on a Thursday and came home on Sunday. We got to spend 2 whole days just relaxing and playing in the water. I felt like a little kid all over again. We all ended up having so much fun that we plan on going back one more time before the summer is over, we are hoping the whole famiy will get to go this next time. Unfortunately, the only camera I had was on my phone so I wasn't able to capture all the fun, but i was able to take a few pictures.

Reefy sleeping in Avery's baby bouncer.

Reefy and Mommy hanging out in the water.

What's new with the Aiono Fam...

It's official.. I am not a good blogger! BUT I am going to try and get better... So here is my attempt at blog post #2!

Here's a little update..
On April 17th we had a HUGE party for little Reefy, the day was filled with family, friends, cake, food, astro jumps, games and king size candy bars in the pinata. It was sport's ball themed because Reefy is obsessed with sport's balls. It was such a blast! Crazy to think our little Reefy is already 1!!








In May, Reefy and I went with my Mom, Dad, Nieces, and Nephew to Disneyland! It was so much fun to see all the kids run around and play together. They absolutely love disneyland! We went up Thursday and stayed till Saturday morning. My entire family was supposed to go, but at the last minute everyone started to bail... I was so sad that Jared couldn't come with us, but Thursday night after we left Disneyland and went to eat, Brad, Ashley, Erika, and Jared surprised us. I was so happy that Jared came! For one, it is NOT easy to watch 4 kids at Disneyland, so It was definitely nice to have some help. We all had a great time and needless to say, the kids slept like babies that night!





Jared and I have been trying for quite some time now to get pregnant again.. I got pregnant about 4 months ago, but I had a miscarriage at 8 weeks. It was so devastating, definitely a lot harder than I thought it would be. I was a little nervous about trying again because a miscarriage was something I never wanted to go through again. It took a lot of praying and faith to know that everything happens for a reason and if it was meant to be, the Lord would bless us with another baby when the time was right. Well, that time has come!! We found out on June 15th that I am pregnant again. I am 10 weeks as of yesterday. I wanted to make it past the 8 week mark before we really started telling anyone. We are soo thrilled! We find out in 9 weeks what we are having and I can hardly wait.. Send me those baby girl vibes!! haha. We honestly will be happy with whatever sex the baby is as long as it is healthy and strong.

As of right now, our life is great! We both feel so blessed to have a healthy, happy, growing family. That is really all we could ask for!