Lani

Lani

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Here's Lani

Before she was diagnosed with cancer, Lani was full of life.  Now guess what?  She still is!  Listening to her talk about cancer is like hearing someone tell you they were just bitten by a mosquito -- like it's no big deal.  Yet it is to the rest of us who love her.  

I'm Lani's older sister.  But I'm not the oldest.  Kookie is, and there is no greater oldest sister in this world.  Lani is our baby sister...cutest baby sister ever.

Clockwise from bottom right: Baby Lani (look at all that hair!), Tamaiti, Mom (Norma), Me (Pania), Kookie and Dad (Thomas)
Clockwise from top right: Lani, me, Dad, Mom and Kookie
And you can see that she grew up to be the prettiest baby sister ever.
  

She's also Junior's wife... 

Mom to six children, mom-in-law to four, foster mom to many...


And I speak with 100% accuracy when I say that her favorite title is Nana to eight beautiful grandchildren.  Eight!  I try not to be jealous.  I fail.  


Here are a few pics of her family:


Lani with her "baby" Lauryn. Isn't Lauryn gorgeous like her mom?
Of Lani's 4 handsome sons, Dallin is the youngest.  He's been called to serve in the Papua New Guinea Lae Mission and enters the MTC in July 2016.


The men in Lani's life (L to R):  Tolu (2nd oldest), Thor (oldest), Dallin (5th child), husband Junior, and Jordan (3rd child)


Lani's beautiful daughters (inside and out):  Lauryn (6th child) and Terina (4th child)

Thor and Des have 4 children (L to R):  Eliana, Thor, Tautua and Evaleyah

Tolu and 'Ou have this little princess, Vickie-Jane


This is Jojo -- Jordan and Shayna's cute baby boy

Terina and Tupalu have 2 children (L to R):  Nyree and Foe


Lauryn, Dallin and Dylon went to Prom a couple of weeks ago...






Now that you've met the immediate family, I'm turning this over to Lani to blog about what's going on in her own life.  This will be her first attempt at blogging so be gentle with her, LOL.  Its primary purpose is to keep her out-of-trouble as she goes through chemo (I'm kidding).  Its secondary purpose is to allow germ-y folks to stay up-to-date on her condition without endangering her low immune system (I'm not kidding -- I'm her protective older sister, ok?).

Oh, let me post just one more picture...because once Lani starts blogging, you may not see another pic until she figures out how to attach one  :)

Lani cut off all her beautiful hair right before her first chemo treatment.  She hasn't had her hair this short since she was 5 years old when our mom decided she didn't want to battle Lani's tangled curls while we were in New Zealand for a month.  After all these years it's short again in preparation for her pending [insert any famous and extremely good-looking bald person's name here] hairdo.