Mele Kalikimaka, Maligayang Pasko, and Kilisimasi Fiefia!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sorry for the late update, but if you received our Christmas Card and are visiting to check out the Kongaika Ohana, here are some pictures and highlights from this past year:

Robbie: A real big boy, Robbie has gotten over his separation anxiety, and according to his teachers in Day Care, is the "Ring leader" of the class. He is really talking up a storm now and still thinks he beat up his older brothers:).

Ali'i: Prefers to be referred to as James, he is really growing into quite a scholar. He was Student of the Quarter and was in the running for student of the year. He loves to read, run, and most of all tease his siblings:).

Esa: Our little Princess isn't so little anymore:). Esa is involved in everything. She was elected as a student Junior Police Officer, and loves camping out and selling cookies with her Girl Scout troop. She has grown the most this year and has to fight with her mom over what to wear because they are wearing the same size clothes:).

Isi: In his last year of Grade School, Isi is maturing into a young man. He still loves to tease his younger brothers and Sister, but has been a great help to Abi while Rob has been deployed often this year. He is living up to his "Harry Potter" look, and besides doing well in school has mastered the art of Wii:).

Abi: Still beautiful as ever (you can tell Rob updates the blog), Abi's happiest time this year was when we got to go home to bless our home in L.A.....Larion Alto in the Philippines. Abi is still working for the Marines over in K-Bay but is hoping to find a job closer to Rob and the Kids, so cross your fingers and a prayer or two won't hurt either. She has been a real trooper with Rob being gone for what seemed like half of the year, and was grateful to have the support of Family and friends.
Rob: Well as you can tell, I'm the writer of this post....so, I'm good:).....Really though, this year has been quite a busy one for me. Besides being deployed Down Under in Darwin Australia, I got to go back to the Philippines 3 times, as well as short trips to San Antonio Texas and Saint Louis Missouri. Just love being back home and spending time with the family.
We are so thankful for all our challenges this year that have helped us to grow, and count all our many wonderful blessings and know we have truly been blessed. We rejoice in this wonderful season and are grateful for the greatest gift of all, our Savior Jesus Christ. We wish you and your Ohana a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

P.S....we are on FaceBook, so visit us online for realtime updates:)

Spring Break '09

So what do you do with kids that are off from school for two weeks? That's right, put them to work:) Here's a rare picture of all the kids working together helping Daddy clean the van....right before the water fight....didn't want to get the camera wet:)

I took two weeks of leave to be with the kids and boy did we have lots of fun! In addition to all the hard work around the house (more like just Papa and I while the kids lounged around and watched the Nick channel and played Wii:) we also went to some pretty cool places and did some cool things, like going to the beach, miniature golf, movies, and Dave and Busters, just to name a few.

One of the cool places we visited was the Bishop Museum. The kids just loved the "Animation" interactive display and the Science center with the volcano and underwater adventure. Here are a few pictures of our trips there (we got the annual pass so we can go back as often as we want....pretty cool family package!)

In front of the "boring" part of Bishop Museum (Daddy liked this the most....because he's boring too:)

The boys posing at the Planetarium. We watched a really cool movie of the Polynesian Voyagers and learned how they navigated using the stars....I told the kids that our ansestors knew all about that and was one of the reasons why we have the name we do, because Great Grandpa Sione live more at sea than he did the land. I am sure he knew all about the stars and how to navigate in the open sea.

In the glow zone in a simulated lava tunnel....pretty cool exhibit made by local school age children

Alii and Robbie opening up presents....it was also their B-Day (Robbie-4/Alii-6)

We also had a big party for the two boys at the BYU-H Game Room. It was fun to have so many of our friends and family over to celebrate with us. Unfortunately, in our rush to get everything ready, we forgot our camera....so if you want to see more pictures of the event, go look on Abi's Facebook account as she had lots of good friends taking pictures too:)

Well, after two weeks of fun and sun, Daddy had to go back to work and thankfully the kids back to school! It was definitely worth it and I enjoyed every second playing and just spending time with my kids....something I wish I could do more of these days. For those of you who are able, don't pass the opportunity to spend some quality time with your children too....they will be grown up and out of the house before you know it and you will wish you could roll back the years to when they were small again. I hope the Lord allows me to be able to do more of this and that I have the good sense to do so!

Rob out!

Cool video of some fun we had at Bishop Museum.....

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Everyone! We pray this Easter Season finds you all happy and well. Just wanted to post a few pictures and update you on how our year has gone so far.

We finally went to get our family photos done (no small feat for our busy family!), and found out why we only do this every other year or so. The kids did great and despite the fact that I (Rob) need to loose some serious weight (love the double chin) they turned out pretty good. Here they are for you all to enjoy:

Da Kongaika Ohana (Abi looks like one of the kids in this one, love Esa's and Isi's funny faces too:)

Here's a better picture of everyone smiling (notice Robbie still holding his toy:)

Isiboy (looking line a grown up already!)

Esa (Pretty in Pink)

Alii (What a natural poser this guy is)

Robbie (showing his Palangi side:)

Well, good this that is over. Another couple years before we do that again for sure! Hope you like them.

We were also blessed to have Papa Amistad visit with us on his way to attend the conference. Here are a couple pictures of his visit:

Capturing the moments with Robbie

Showing Robbie how to fly a kite....pinoy style!

At Rob's Major Select Party

Enjoying the Luau at PCC (Alii doing the Moko for ya:)

We are grateful for Papa's visit and all the help he gave us doing spring cleaning and helping Rob with some big yard projects (put landscaping rocks all along the side of the road to keep the weeds from growing). We look forward to Mama coming to visit us soon too!

Well, we had our Easter Dinner a little early due to Rob's business trip and enjoyed a traditional Ham dinner Easter Eve. We were blessed to have Mom and Dad over for dinner and in addition to enjoying the meal and great conversation, we introduced Mom to Wii Fit:). She liked it so much she will probably go buy one now. Now we can all get fit while having fun:)!

This season we are reminded of the wonderful blessing of Jesus Christ and the at toning sacrifice he gave on our behalf. We will ever be grateful for our older brother who gave his all for us. We pray we can always remember his sacrifice and do all we can to be found worthy of his grace. May you all have a wonderful Easter season and the Lord's choicest blessings be on you and your loved ones. Sending all our love.....

The Kongaika Ohana

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Hauole Makahiki Hou!!!

We bid farewell to 2008 and welcomed in the New Year in style with around....oh 50 of our freinds. There is an old filipino saying that the more people you have over at your home on the new year, the more blessings you will receive in the new year....so we are expecting lots of blessings:).

Here are a few pictures of our fun night/morning:

Good food, good company, good fun!!

Fireworks....don't get burned!

Some Wii boxing.....go Dad!

BYUH Pinoy Club

Ali'i and Esa after all the fireworks were done

Ali'i.....trying to smile while trying not to get burned:)

Robbie....this is how to do it Ali'i

So if the all-nighter New Year's party wasn't enough, we decided to invite some more of our Ward freinds over for another party the first Saturday of new year. Here are some pictures of that event:

Karaoke Queens!:)

More food!!!

Two sweet couples dancing to the Karaoke music

Getting down singing Karaoke!

Well, we are all partied out! We were thankful to have so many friends and family to celebrate with and look forward to the opportunities this New Year brings. May your day's be filled with love and laughter, and we hope to run into you again sometime this year.