Pictures of Carson

Mason is 10 days old in these pics. . .I took these pics, but my talented niece edited them and made them look so much better - Thanks Heidi!!!

Baby Carson!!!!!

Our wonderful, sweet baby boy #3 is here! Carson Malosi Tapusoa was born on January 6, 2010 at 12:29 PM. He weighed 7 lbs 3 ozs and was 20 1/2 inches long. After a somewhat scary turn at the end of a pretty normal pregnancy I was induced 2 weeks early due to suddenly becoming pre-eclampsic. Enjoy some of our pictures from this exciting birth, hospital stay and bringing him home!

Don't Shoot Your Eye Out! - Christmas 2009

We had a Very Merry Christmas indeed!!

We love opening stockings, even Tama got lots of treats and toys in his stocking!! We found this hilarious dog stocking that sings and barks Christmas songs while it flaps its ears that have bells on them. . .soooo funny!

Mason was loving it, he got gobs of Rescue Heros and more of these Tonka character trucks he loves. The police and fire engine were a BIG hit - he loves saying "Fire Truck - whooo".

Delvin said I can never top this years gift, I knew when I saw that wonderful box at Costco that it was "The Gift" - "100 Years of War" 24 DVDs. Oh wow - any war history buffs dream!

They got me a new digital camera!!!! Much needed with a new baby on the way - ours had been acting up for awhile and on Christmas morning the flash stopped working, so I got to open the first gift!!

But the gift of the year had to be for Aidan. . .BB Gun - a 9 y/o boys dream. . .he didn't even ask for it (I think he would've never believed he would get it, so he didn't dare ask). Wow was he excited - I'm not sure I've ever seen him so excited about a present before!!! Once he got a small piece opened and saw the box he started tearing the rest of the paper off at Mach 4!!

Despite Mason having pnemonia and Julie having a sinus infection, it was a great Christmas - we had friends over for dinner and Julie's mom was with us - always good to have Grandma here!!

Please visit our annual "Year in Review" blog for a review of 2009.

Lego Miners!!

Tis the season. . .to get behind on blogging!!!

Aidan started a Lego Robotics League - "Lego Miners" - back in August - they had their competition on December 5th. It was a really fun day - they placed about in the middle, which was great -

they are one of the younger teams.

Take the survey to Help Aidan with his science project!!

Hi Everyone - Aidan's science project is titled "which ingredients are the most important when making Chocolate Chip Cookies? We will be making lots of cookies this month!!! Please help him by taking his survey - Thanks!

Survey now closed - thanks to all those who did - we got 40 complete which is way above what we we hoping for - thanks everyone!!!
We'll post pics and results end of Dec or Jan!!!

Mason Turned 2!!!

We can't believe it's been two years since this little blessing joined our family!!! He had a fun birthday on Monday - he was a bit perplexed with the candles - he insisted on having all these different ones on there, but he only had to blow out 2 and was confused at first, but then he got it! Unfortunately I had been sick all week and didn't have the energy to make a really fun cake, but he was very happy with chocolate!!! He got balloons early in the day and had a total blast with them all day and kept coming up to me and saying "Thank you baoons, mommy" - oh melt my heart!!

He knew exactly what to do with the T-ball set, no one had to show him, he's been off and hitting like crazy!!! We were laughing all night!

He was hilarious when opening his presents. . .he would rip off tiny little pieces and put them in his cousin Kelseys hand until he could get a bigger tear going. He was so patient with it all!

He also got a little race track and a bunch of these cute little Tonka cars and has a blast racing them!!!

Here's the annual pic of Mason and Kristina - the twins!!! Would've been a lot cuter if Mason would smile!!! They were so cute exchanging their presents. . .they gave each other several hugs - precious!!!!!

Week in review!

So, this is a few of the happenings of the week in reverse order. . .

Yesterday Mason (Mr. Busybody) was standing up on the bench at church to see the kids (during the annual Childrens Program), lost his balance and fell. He was right in between Delvin and I and we were just not fast enough for this kid!! Anyway - he hit his ear right on the corner of the wooden pocket that holds the hymn books! He hit it perfectly and had a nice laceration all around that little piece of the ear. We attempted the Walk-in clinc hoping not to have to deal with the ER, but they said it was too complex for them and sent us to the ER. We actually were in and out of the ER faster than the walk-in clinic!!! It was quite the ordeal with Delvin and two nurses holding him down while the Dr sutured it up. He ended up with 5 stitches. He screamed like mad and would occasionally take a break from the screaming and one of the nurses said "Mason, you're a tough little cookie!" Mason immediately starts yelling "cookie, cookie, momma". We were laughing so hard! It was so funny. Afterward they gave him a popscicle and a teddy bear. I put a bandaid on the teddy bears ear just like his and he thought that was cool, wouldn't let go of the bear after that! Anyway - trauma #1 with Mason - check! I'm sure with this kids there will be plenty more to come!! Grrr - he is scheduled to get his two year old pics taken on Thursday. . .guess I'll have to wait another week until after those stitches come out!

As I mentioned above it was the annual Children's Program at church. . .Aidan did a great job this year - we were very proud! Every child (ages 3-11) has a part they say and a few of them are chosen to write and give a 1 minute talk. This was Aidans first year to give a talk. He did an awesome job! He talked about Service. He used the example of how people helped us with our garden and how we were able to serve others by sharing our vegetables. Luckily we were able to settle Mason down and get the bleeding under control just in time to stand in the back and listen to Aidan give the talk, then we left for the ear repair journey!

I haven't posted yet about flag football, mostly because I haven't gotten good pics, but oh well, here are some anyway. Delvin has been coaching Aidan's team through the Boys and Girls Club. They are both loving it!! Here's Delvin in action during a Huddle!!
This is Aidan's first year playing and we are shocked at how good he is!!! He often plays quarterback, but he really loves playing defense. . .he is excellent at both!! It is fun to watch him - he has turned into quite the football junkie over the last few months - he wants to watch football on tv and has to go out in the back yard and practice the moment he gets home from school. He's so motivated to learn and is far more "into it" than I dreamed he would be. . .watch out!

Shhh, let them sleep! Amazingly, Mason crawled into bed with Aidan and fell right asleep. . .not once but two nights - in a row. . .he's never done that before, I tried to get him to do it again tonight, but it was a no go. Anyway - they both slept great both nights!!! (P.S. - that's quite a collection of blankets they have in there isn't it?)

Announcing. . . Tama Tapusoa

No the baby didn't arrive early, but we had a surprise addition to our home!! Tama is a puppy we found two weeks ago wandering around all day and could not leave him in the cold over night so we brought him in. We looked for his owner via craigslist, vet scan for a ID chip, newpaper lost and found and fliers and never found his owner. However, we did find 3 siblings that others in our area had also found and none of them had any success in finding the owner either. . .looks like the litter was dumped :(

Anyway - after 2 weeks we've decided he's ours to keep and have named him "Tama" which means "boy" in Samoan. He is a sweetheart - quiet, cuddly and very loving. The vet says he's 3 months old or less. The boys are in love with him as are Delvin and yes, me - I actually am good and attached to this animal, ME! I never thought I would care so much about a dog, but alas!!!

Mason is pretty rough with Tama usually, but on this occasion he felt he needed to teach Tama about being a dog, so he read him a book - Clifford the Big Red Dog - of course!!! (I love the pointing fingers like he's trying to teach Tama he's a dog like Clifford - so funny!)

Aidan is awesome with Tama - he takes him in the back yard to play every day after school and does not even care when he has to pick up the "unpleasantries" Tama leaves around the house sometimes!!!

So now I'm really outnumbered - 4 boys (soon to be 5) and me - what's a girl to do with all these boys?

Halloween 2009

It was a fun evening of Trick or Treating! I say fun, because this year I sat at home and answered the door while Delvin took the kids around the neighborhood (usually it's the other way around). I did miss out on how cute I'm sure Mason was at the doors. . .he was so excited to get candy!! I could not get Mason to cooperate very well for the pics, so this is the best I got of the two of them together. . .Aidan as a "Mad Scientist" and Mason as a "Monkey"!!!

Aidan had eye balls and bags of blood to pass out. . .candy of course!

Mason, showing off his loot!!

Mason was so cute - he insisted that I take what he wanted to share with me. . .funny kid!!
Check out the banana in his pocket!!!Under his Monkey costume he wore his "Skeleton" that a friend from work gave me. . .he is in love with his "kelton jammies" They glow in the dark and he thinks that is the greatest!!!

Mr. Independent

Mason is in the "I do it" stage! While it is so cute that he wants to be so independent, it is soooooooo frustrating that we can't seem to get anything done in a timely manner. Lots of extra time has to be given to either fight with him or to just let him attempt to do it himself. I'm having one of those moments right now!!! I really need to get to the store and he has to put on his overalls himself. Instead of fighting I've decided to give him the time to "I do it" as I do some deep breathing to prevent me from getting too frustrated. I've decided to sit here a blog about it instead!!

Look, I just got some cute pics of him after he finally got the overalls on backward and is trying to do the straps. He quickly noticed I had the camera and then a new "I do it" began - he loves taking pictures. Ok, I think the mommy "blogging time out" worked and I'm going to attempt to get the overalls on the right way and head out. I'm already anticipating the next "I do it" in the car, trying to get his carseat buckles on. Oh the joys of motherhood!

Collection for Samoa update!

Thanks to all who have brought donations so far to help the relief efforts in Samoa - Our living room is filling up! We have located all of Delvins biological family - they are safe and good, but there are still two cousins and and aunt from his adopted family that have still not been located. Thanks for your continued prayers!

After several changes, we now have the whole plan worked out!! We need all the donated items by Wednesday evening - on Thursday I'm delivering it to the containers which will be leaving the Port of Seattle on Friday!!

We are accepting new or gently used clothes and shoes, diapers, wipes and any hygiene products (Soap, Toothpaste, Toothbrushes, Shampoo & Conditioner, Feminine Products,Toilet Paper, Deodorant, Wash Cloths,Towels). Or if you wish to donate money I will be going shopping for hygiene products.

Please bring any donations to

1) Anytime or day prior to 6:00 PM on Wednesday: Our home (contact us for address)

2) Wednesday 6:30-8:30 PM at our church: 9215 51st St. (just north of 88th) there are two churches really close by - we are the one on the East side of the street.

Thanks so much!!!!

Today's Pick!

So small, but sooooooo tasty!!!!

some family located today!!!

We have heard via email from one of Delvin's sisters in Western Samoa. All of the Biological family in both Western and American Samoa are safe and ok, with the exception of the Uncle. We hope that we will hear good news about him as well!!! We haven't heard news of the 3 missing on his adopted side. Still collecting clothes and shoes to send - thanks for your help!