Officially Home Owners

It's official!! We are first time home owners. It is a very exciting and scary thing. After closing, we stopped at the new house on the way to our apartment. LaRee went up and down the stairs about a dozen times, hum, I wonder if that will ever get old for her?? She got excited when we went out to the backyard which tickled me to no end. I am most excited about our back yard and deck!!! hee hee. The pictures of the backyard and deck are the pictures posted by the previous owners. It is empty and sad for now. It is a 4 bedroom (2 master suites) with 3 and a half baths and 3 living areas. Yea space!!!

Texas State Fair

Yesterday was Sione's day off and $3 Dr. Pepper day at the Texas State fair, so we took a little field trip. What a fun filled day. There was an amazing petting zoo and LaRee squealed with joy through the whole thing. Her favorite animals were the goats (my mom would have loved that fact). They also had a hands on farm where LaRee pretended to plant and pick fruits and vegetables, milk a cow, pick eggs and feed chickens. She was very timid, but did most everything that they asked her to do. I think everyones favorite part was free cones at the food and fabrics building. yummlish!!

The Temple

I love the temple. I rejoice in the fact that I am a member of a church that has temples and that I have had the blessed opportunity to be married to Sione in the Redlands Temple and to have our little family be a forever family. Today I had the opportunity to go the the Dallas Temple and attend the sealing of the Carlisle family. It was so neat to see everyone dressed in white and to see this family become a forever family too! Paula is a sister from my mission. Weird thing is I met her at the mission home on her first day and my last day in the mission field. We hooked up years later in Provo with a group of returned missionaries (The Loop) that all knew each other in one way or another. My friend Jamie refers to that as friends-in-law. Friends-in-law can be the best kind of friends to have. Here is a picture of Bill, Paula and their five little ones.

Back to temples, right before we left San Diego I was able to attend the sealing of my friends Jennifer and Ivan. Jennifer and I attended the Pacific Beach singles ward for more years than I would like to admit. We met at a slumber party (of all things) can I just say, grown up slumber parties are just as fun (if not funner) then adolescent ones. The following is a picture of Jennifer, Ivan and some of the "back row girls" from church. If you ask me, the back row is the best seat in the house!!!

Acting like tourists

We took a trip to the stockyards with Verlyn (his first time, our second.) It was a nice day and Verlyn bought a Texas songs CD for us to enjoy on the ride home.


LaRee is getting pretty acrobatic in the pool, brave girl. If you look closely you can see that there is a ledge on both sides of the pool. LaRee likes to mess around on the ledge, walking back and forth and pretending to fall in.




We took a trip over to the Dallas Farmers Market in down town Dallas. The fruits and veggies were so beautiful. Everyone had their produce polished and shining, stacked in such an eye appealing way. We bought about 5 pounds of red grapes that lasted about a day. They were super sweet - Yumlish!!

Settling in...

We are finally feeling settled in. All boxes are unpacked, well - most boxes! Our garage is half full with boxes and furniture. We are only unpacking the necessities and it really is amazing what we already own, but can live without. Our only duplicate purchase was a bathroom trash can and the only thing that I packed and cannot find are the bags for our laundry cart. Which isn't a big deal unless you are Mr. Latu. We are in the process of buying a house and I am trying to contain my excitement since so much can change during this process. If all goes as planned we will be moving in on the 5th of October. Hopefully, more to follow on that subject.
We attended our address appropriate ward/church this last Sunday. As we were crossing the parking lot a woman getting out of her car yells across the parking lot, "y'all visiting us today or moved into the ward?" Such a warm Texas welcome!! We really like the ward. A nice mix of young, old and in between. There are even a handful of Tongan families. Verlyn said they took the time in Highpriest group for everyone to introduce themselves. The ward even has a "LaRee" only her name has a little "r." They are starting a "mommy group" get together on Friday mornings, so I am looking forward to that. I have enjoyed spending my days with LaRee. We are bonding more now. She is starting to pretend which seems crazy to me. When she is fake falling she will say really fast, "oh no, oh no, oh noooo!" We try to go in the pool as much as possible. Love it!!

Waco Zoo, who would have known

We were able to take advantage of Sione's day off and go to Waco for the day. I figured it was important to do so since it was part of his mission and our wedding sealer mentioned at least 3 times that it was important for him to revisit his mission. It was a nice day. We went to the Dr. Pepper museum, had some kick butt barbecue and ended the day with a trip to the Zoo. It was so nice. Lots of animals, few people and lots of a/c stops along the way. It was a perfect family affair.

We have arrived...

Finally, we are here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. We left San Diego on August 4th after a full day of work, but I am so glad that we did. It made the trip go that much better. My dear friend Becky (or as LaRee calls her - "A B" for auntie B)came along for the ride and I will be forever grateful. As Verlyn said to her the morning she returned to San Diego, "we never would have made it without you." I am guessing that we would have made it, but that it would have been a total nightmare. We spent the first night of our trip in Yuma, AZ. I know that it is spitting distance from San Diego, but I guarantee you that it was one of my better nights of sleep. We spent the next night in Van Horn, TX. That was a more difficult night. LaRee was teething and had a crazy high fever. Her whole body was hot to the touch - tummy, feet, hands. I felt so bad for her. She woke up about every half hour. The next day went so much better. Everyone always talks about how nice people from Texas are. It's true, every time I came out of a restroom talking to someone, Becky would shoot me a look. I promise - I never started it!!

It feels so good to be here. I loved my time in San Diego and I feel like I have left behind some bits and pieces of myself. I have made some amazing friends who have been great examples in my ward there. I have also made friends through my job and through the singles ward. I had met most of them soon after moving to San Diego 10 years ago. It does feel crazy to live somewhere that I do not have any history.

Happy to be here, but sad to have left so many good friends in San Diego.

Auntie B - come to Texas soon!! Any time, our door is open.