Things are going good in our neck of the woods! Now that 'second winter' has hit [despite the stream of beautiful weather a the last few weeks], I am constantly reminded of what a city kid I am haha. But it has been good-we are enjoying a bit of routine, and even though I tend more towards the outside/busy, my grown Addy has always been a bit more a homebody, so she is loving it.
Some high lights in our recent months-the kids and I were very excited for Chinese New Year. We worked hard on making lanterns and decorating with banners, made 2 different types of dumplings and fortune cookies from scratch, wore our lucky colours, played Chinese checkers, read library books, watched the Kung Fu Panda series and Mulan, ate oranges and longevity noodles for the holiday.

It was a lot of fun and made things feel more like US, which I loved. I recently found out from my sister Hillary's genealogy endeavours that my great great grandfather was named Chang Kin Akana, and he was married to [my great great Grandmother] was named Julia Naleialoha Ahia [which was especially tender to me, as my name is Julia Nalani. I like to think that was a special little miracle as we didn't know anything of her until recently.

Throughout Chang's life, he travelled between Hawaii and his homeland of China. While in Hawaii, and after his wife gave birth to their youngest, Julia passed away at age 30 and Chang was left a single Father to 5 young children. Census records show us that at least at for a while, his MIL moved in with him to help take care of the kids while he continued to work hard to provide for all of them. When I think about my life here now, far from home, feeling different and shouldering the responsibility of parenthood with Lester, I can't imagine what it would be like to do it as a single parent. Their love, hard work, sacrifice and dedication is a great example to me and helps me to feel like I can do hard things.

I've always loved learning about other cultures-but the older I get and the more I learn about my family history, the more I see how all cultures are beautiful and different and SHOULD be celebrated-especially as so, so many of them have culminated in making and my kids. So far, we know for a fact we have roots that trace the world-from China, Hawaii, Portugal, the Philipines, Puerto Rico, England, Denmark, and all over America. And we are discovering every day, more and more connections that we didn't know existed except for in a call or feelings in our souls.

I'm proud of that. And I want my kids to be proud of that too.






I also got to throw a little Galentine's Party with some friends. The party itself was fun-we had a good turn out, and we stayed up just hanging out and eating till about 11:00 at night as if we all didn't have jobs, husbands, kids and responsibilities awaiting us the next morning haha. It was good for me. I think Lester and I had almost as much fun planning it as I did throwing it. I got my baking urge out when making madelines, chocolate friands, and a fruit tart, and Lester insisted on making a carrot farro salad and delicious smoked tri tip for the event. He is the best. So even though I very often miss my friends from home, I am making connections here and it is wonderful! [I can't believe I took pictures of the food and decor, but not when everyone was here! haha fail!]







For Valentines itself, we made heart shaped pink pancakes with berries, and sent everyone off to school for various fun little parties. Bear and I got to spend some special one on one time, which is something I'm loving as we've never gotten much of that before now. That night, Lester came home at a decent time and took us all out to a delicious dinner downtown, and when we came home we had dessert and put the kids to bed and binge watched season 3 of true detective. I love that every aspect of our love at this age and time in our lives haha. The kids also had a little tea party the next day with a few friends, some Valentines and cookies they decorated. It was fun!






As far as generally, whats going on with all of us-Lester has finished his first quarter and come out of it fairly well-and this time around, has one less class and bit more knowledge of the subject to work with so we are able to see a bit more of him, which has been wonderful! Addy is still thriving academically, and has finally seemed to make some new, solid friends and feels at home here. Ms. Isla is our social butterfly-she started attending a joy school with some friends two days a week, and it seems like all the rest of the week is filled with her being invited out to others for play dates. And Bear boy is growing like a weed-he gets into everything, whether its putting stuff in the toilet, climbing up on tables or counters till he's stuck, taking off his diaper or what ever else. And yet still, he is probably the most cuddly, and happiest of all our kiddos. He is constantly smiling, and dancing, and is about the friendliest person I've ever met in my life. We love him and he is a light in our lives. I have been doing my best job to try to support everyone while still taking time here and there to fit in the things I like-bc hey, if I don't even get to use the bathroom without an audience, you can bet I darn will be able to listen to my audio book or have a get together with some new friends haha.

Throw in some museum trips, hikes, a pie day party, dinners with friends, experiments in food, experiments in science, and these are the things that have been going on with us! My parents are coming to visit next week and we can't wait, and then we also have all the minor holiday fun coming up. Life is good and we are together which means we are happy.