Happy Holidays!

We hope you all enjoyed your Christmas! We loved being with our family and realize that we are some of the fortunate ones. I was blessed to have Aaron home with me and we were blessed to have Nathan home for his first Christmas in years. My moms parents were able to come up and we felt blessed being together as siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, moms and dads and grandparents. That is what Christmas is about. We hope you are all staying safe and warm wherever you are.

The Nativity:

We were starting to dress up for parts....My neice Hailey wanted to be the dragon. What? You don't remember the dragon in the Nativity scene?

Graham (my nephew on the couch) was the inn keeper. My brother Nathan, was Joseph. Joseph went to the inn keeper and at this point he was suppose to say he had a manger. Instead this is our version.

Inn Keeper : "No."

Joseph: " I dindn't even get to ask you a question."

Inn Keeper: "You've already been here and asked me the same question twice."




Coming to a close with the shepherds and wisemen giving their praises.

Onto presents the next day.....

The elves had passed out all the gifts.....

Mary and her brandnew husband Peter, Aaron and Nathan....

watching Lucy......

Back in VA and Our Little Guy :)

Nathan teaching Aaron dominos...
Grandpa teaching Dallin how to cut wood....check out Aaron's socks and shoes with is shirt :)

Merry Christmas!

Next year we'll have a little one too...we are playing with Lucy for now.

We got our 4D ultrasound just before coming up. It was amazing!!

He's peacefully sleeping......

Israel kept putting his hands up by his face.... I love this picture....looks like a painting
This was so cute seeing him yawn...

Israel Jay Filipo Ilaoa

I thought I already posted these pictures. I've learned its hard to scan these ultrasound pictures because of the color of them....but I thought I would still put up the pictures. These are from my appointment when we found out we were having a boy.
The name: Israel because my parents had 12 kids and this is the 12th grandchild for my parents. Bishops are known as judges in Israel and Aaron's dad is a bishop right now and my dad is in the bishopric. Jay is my dad's name and Filipo is Aaron's dad's name....




This is the obvious boy shot that Aaron has as his myspace default picture :)



Israel's face...for now he seems to be favoring the Samoan mouth and nose :)




Israel's foot :)



Israel already in the hiking position, without the blur, it actually looks like he is reaching for something....this is Aaron's background pic on his phone :)

Israel's Room....

I only have the crib up for now (and I don't know I will have much more in there besides a little dresser and pictures...)
Aaron told me we could take his shoes out and they'd share the room.....but so far someone is not keeping to his side of the room.
(This is me staying positive of the predeployment gear which means daddy is leaving soon)

Pics from our Trip

This is the reason Aaron had to be gone for three months....I'm proud of him for enduring all those tests and passing the class.

Here are some pictures of Aaron catching up with his brother Toli who is serving in Pocatello, ID on the same street as my grandma. Grandma's been looking for him fro over a year!

This is my Uncle Lorin, Grandpa and me at my 20 weeks. It was so nice being "home" with my grandparents. I didn't get pics of the cousins...but that was really nice too. I don't know how much more I will allow Aaron to visit with those boy cousins and uncle Lorin....too much motorcycle and football talk that might get Aaron in trouble :)
I love this picture because so many of us grandkids have slept in the "purple room" and Aaron is sleeping with my blanket I used when I was at Ricks.
So Aaron is near LA for three months and the only thing that happened to our car was the impounding on the way there....well when we get to Missouri...the promised land or what some call "Zion"....we had some kids decide to be funny and go pumpkin throwing one night. Our poor Charlene got a big hit....I was craving pumpkin pie until I saw this....

I had to include some pictures of the Turkey Bowl since that is why we made our trip to MO(of course to see the family too!) Aaron did not fall down in this picture.

Did the white boy think he would actually take Aaron down? Did he think there were not two other Samoans trying too?

Back in NC with my class celebrating our having a boy....I had some pink frosting just in case and they said I shouldn't waste it....

There are few things Aaron wakes up early for....he woke up at 7:00 to make Turkey....and it was for his OU game....

This is us at church in NC (not the best front shot of me, but I like having Aaron with me-I look super pregnant!)

After church...me at 22 weeks
Aaron breaking the fast....(I think it was close enough to two meals....that boy! I love having him home!!)