The Addington's Christmas Letter

Aloha and Mabuhay Family and Friends:

Mele Kalikimaka 圣诞节快乐 Maayong Pasko Merry Christmas!

As part of (Operation) Kokua 2008...we chose to send out our family Christmas letter via our blogspot. "The 3R's reduce-reuse-recycle" ~Jack Johnson :).

Greetings to all from cloudy cold windy Maryland. This is our second Christmas here and the past year has been full of blessings.


-Naia Matina Ka'iulani



Naia is now three months sweet and cute. She gets longer and fatter by the week. Our little girl loves to coo, smile, and make bubbles...she especially loves her daddy. However, Naia does recognize mommy as THE most important person PERIOD.
MMmm hmmm cooo coooo whah mmm coo bubble bubble ~Naia


-Nyle Santino Kahalewai



Nyle Nyle Nyle...I could easily describe him with many various soundbites. Little Santino is not so little anymore, in fact, Nyle weighs about the same as MJ. Nyle eats like a champ and is VERY comfortable with his potty training. Nyle started soccer clinic this year and got to spend more time with mommy as MJ went to school. Nyle loves to read, ride his bike, sing , dance, and wrestle. Nyle is naturally funny and still loves to cuddle. Nyle likes to bear hug MJ and sometimes tries to sneak one on Naia. HULK SMASH! Kung-Fu Panda! Frosty da Doughman ~Nyle


-MJ Briggs Nahiolea



MJ has done most of the growing in the house (save Mike's belly). Although MJ said goodbye to some dear [girl]friends over the summer...he quickly recovered and has excelled in Kindergarten. MJ is quite social, sensitive, responsible, fun, smart, and a GREAT big brother. MJ started to swim this year in the pool. MJ also loves to: ride bike, read books, draw, mess around in the garage (with Dad's tools), and boss Nyle around. NYLE No!!!! ~MJ



-Naika and Michael



Naika was blessed to have her mother here for the past few months. Nana Erma was so helpful and fun to have around. Without the extra helping hands, Mike would have suffered even more in grad school. Naika and Naia are doing well...Naika is happy to report she is returning to "normal." We recently relocated on base and can now entertain our friends without sitting on them. Oh...Mike and Naika couldn't send out as many gifts this year because >>YES...we finally crossed into mini-van world.

This past year we enjoyed family vacations to Pennsylvania, New York State, New York City, Washington DC, and Laurel MD. Naika continues to serve the children in the church primary. MJ will be starting CTR6 and Nyle will be a Sunbeam. Mike continues to work and attend grad school at NDIC-College Park, Maryland.


On a truly personal note: Our Testimony

-We would like to express our gratitude for your friendship and love. We believe that (especially) this time of the year should be centered on Jesus Christ. We hope to refocus our lives and goals on the most important: Family, Relationships, and The Savior. We believe in his divinity, calling, and redeeming love.

-The blessings we have recieved are truly countless. Topping the list of most notable are: *Peace and happiness in our home. *Love, communication, and trust between each other. *Beautiful sweet healthly children that fill our home with joy and laughter (and some tears).

-We hope that you have a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season.


Mele Kalikimaka kakou e Ha'oli Makahiki Hou!

ohana updates

So I've been slacking on my blog updates for good reasons though. Aside from the busy life of momhood we also relocated to a new house on base. Since we requested the move, we had to do it ourselves. We're grateful to some of our good friends who lent some muscles in moving our bigger furniture. Thank you Sam, Beau and Brian!!! Mike and I tackled everything else while Nana watched the kiddos. Though we miss our big backyard in the old house, we love all the space we have now. I don't have to share my kitchen with Mike's bike. We also got to celebrate Thanksgiving in our new home with some friends. Thanksgiving food is not really my forte, so thank you Food network for all your great recipes. We have our Christmas tree and lights put up. We're looking forward to celebrating Christmas with Nana before she goes home. Here are some recent pictures of the kids:




Naia turned 2 mos. At her 2nd month check up she weighed 12 lbs and she was at 23 inches long. She took the shots like a champ though she had a little fever that night.



She gives me at least 4 even 6 hours of sleep. We're amazed! Now daddy said if all baby girls are as sweet and easy as her we should have more!




The first flurries of the season. Nyle was very excited to go out and play. He thought that he could go sledding already in our backyard. Too bad it only lasted for half an hour.




Our asthma boy. So it's that time of year again for Nyle. He gets it really bad during Fall. The Doctor said that the steroids will make him hyper active, like he's not hyper enough already.




MJ doing the "hay" jump at Sunrise corn maze




Sometimes he misses the school bus because he spends a lot of time playing with his baby sister.

MJ voted for Obama

A conversation with MJ ...

MJ: Mom, did you vote for Obama?
Mom: Why do you ask, babe?
MJ: Welllll... because I voted for Obama (proudly declaring it)
[telling me about their "mock" election in school today]
Mom: Why did you vote for him?
MJ: because I saw him on TV (the 30 min infomercial really worked) and I like that he wears a black suit and tie like daddy and the elders.
Mom: John McCain wears suit too.
MJ:(totally ignoring what I just said)why does John McCain look silly?

Naia, Nyle and MJ...we voted...

Naia turned a month old last week. She weighs 10 lbs now.




Naia 3 weeks old. Our good friend and awesome photographer, Tiffany Roundy took these pictures


Nyle is POTTY TRAINED!!! We just can't believe it! Thank you to Nana Erma for helping us. Nyle is so efficient that he even uses the toilet to pass gas, I'm not joking.



MJ, Mr. Artist drew pictures of some of the characters of Nick Jr.'s Curious Buddies. We thought they're pretty impressive or maybe we're just being adoring parents :)





So Mike and I sent out our absentee ballots for Hawaii a couple of days ago. We're one of those who were undecided for a long time. Well, it was more like McCain today, Obama the next day and back and forth. Anyhow, we know we voted for the better man. We look forward to the election results.

Post Preggoness

Thank you for all the emails, comments, calls and congratulations. Mahalo to Mike for doing the last post for us. It's not his favorite thing to do, but he was really excited to share the news and Naia's photos. I know I have a lot of things to share...I'll do my best to get my thoughts together; it's not that easy when you lack sleep, have abdominal cramps and suffer engorged breasts ;p.

L and D > Naia was 2 days late, what a relief it was when I started spotting Tuesday morning. That's how my labor started with the boys too. I knew I was gonna have her that day. When we got to L & D triage I was 4 cm and looking too comfortable to be admitted. So they told us to go eat ,walk around and come back in a couple of hours. When we came back a couple of hours later, I was still at 5 cm, couple of hours more the midwife decided, hmmm how about some Pitocin. While it made the contractions stronger but I was still comfortable. The midwife suggested breaking the water<<>

1200pm, 5cm waiting to get checked in L&D , 5 hours before the big push

Our Baby girl> She is 8 days old as of this post. I'm crossing my fingers that her personality won't change because she is a really good baby. I can't remember the boys giving me more than an hour of sleep when they were new. Naia sleeps for 3 hours straight and she has the sweetest cry when she wants milk or diaper change. Are we just used to our rambunctious boys that we're so amazed with how gentle and sweet our baby girl is :). Some of you asked about the name. Mike and I always liked the name Nyah, we changed the spelling since the latter is pretty common, Naia is the Hawaiian spelling and it means dolphin. Matina, was my second area in the mission, Matina Davao, Philippines. Ka'iulani is Aunty Rhonda Addington Brevig's Hawaiian name.

The Big Bruddahs> The boys truly adore her... they shower her with hugs kisses and tell her all the time how cute and sweet she is. We're amazed at how Nyle does his best to be gentle around her, (we know how hard that is for him). When we came home from the hospital, Nyle asked me if we got the baby sister for him. If I address him as Babe, he corrects me, tells me that he is Nyle Santino, the big brother. When MJ came home that day, he asked if Naia is out, who is the baby in my belly :). Explaining breast feeding to them was interesting. They both agree that it sounds yucky. We know that Naia likes having her brothers around because she look so calm and content even when they're playing loud and rowdy. They love to sing to her too from favorite Primary songs to Transformers theme song. >>MORE than meets the EYE!

gramma suzi & grand kids

Daddy's girl> The first night with Naia, Mike told me already that he wants another baby girl because he will have a hard time letting go of her:). You know 20 years from now, when that good Mormon boy will sweep her of her feet, hee-hee (dead meat). Well, if we have another one then he'll get his heart broken twice when those boys come to take them both:). I know how much he treasures his little boys but baby Naia is surely the mango of his eyes now.

Naia Matina Ka'iulani Addington

First family pic, 24 Sept 2008.

Da Boyz and Baby Girl.

Naika and Naia 15 minutes after birth.

Nana and Naika taking that last stroll at Burba.

Daddy's Girl.
(Note to future boy friends: WOT! 6ft, 215#, Reach 73'', Bench 315, 40 @ 4.9sec)

Mommy checking out the goods.

Naika and Naia up-close, awake, and alert.


Baby Girl Naia Matina

The Ladies-Q.


After Naika's long long wait...Naia Matina Ka'iulani entered our world on
Sept. 23, 2008 at 1745.

Naia is cute, compact, and solid at 7 pounds 6 ounces; measuring 19.5 inches.
(MJ and Nyle were both 8.6# @ 19.75 inches)

Naia is peaceful, wide-eyed, fair, and hairy!! Mommy and baby are doing well recovering at John's Hopkins Baltimore, MD.

If all goes as planned, Naika and Naia will be home first thing Thursday morning.
Please forgive my errors and format...Naika will most likely update =).

Thank you for all the prayers and well wishes!

Aloha Pumehana,
Mike, Naika, MJ, Nyle, and Naia

p.s.>> MJ and Nyle as newborns...

kidergarten..soccer..another year and pregnant belly

MJ's first day in Kindergarten. He was very excited to go to school. The moment he went in those double doors at Manor view ES, I was sobbing like I was sending my son to Iraq. A mother approached me, she was teary-eyed too, she told me that it does not get any easier, she has a 1st grader. Nyle was sad, he is not used to being away from his big brother this long, but we did our best to spend our day doing fun stuff . When we went to pick MJ up that afternoon, he had that happy, content look on his face. He told us all the things they did that day. When I asked him if he missed us, of course he said he didn't :).. We're proud of his independence and his gusto for learning.




Nyle started Soccer Clinic. We've been waiting for this day to come. Our expectations were quite high because Nyle loves to play soccer. What we forgot though is that Nyle doesn't like rules. He just wanted to play with his Dad and MJ; he was not listening to his coach at all, sigh.. We'll see if he'll warm up next practice day. But I have to say he looked so cute in his soccer attire! Go Tino!



Cheesecake Factory/ Celebrated 8 years together and another year older. Nyle was in his stroller fast asleep in case you're wondering why he's not in the picture.





37 weeks and 1 cm dilated. Mike wanted to make sure that he took a picture of me before the baby pops out. This is for you Crystal :) !