Christmas letter

I hope our Christmas letter has found everyone looking back on a great year and looking forward to another. As always, our life is an adventure. So you don't have to review our blog I've created our year in review.....

January - Rusty turned 30. Yes, you are reading that right. Ahhhhh! Holly and I started a Christmas craft project.
Febuary - A dog gets away from us while we are volunteering at the humane society, and the humane society mafia instructs us on how to hold a dog on a leash.
March - Watched an outdoor movie while eating hot dogs on beach chairs under the stars as a ward activity. My mom and dad came to visit. We met them on Oahu and spent four days touring the island. They returned to Kauai with us and spent another week.
April - Mike and Holly get THE CALL that their sweet baby girl had been born. Less than 24 hours of preparation for a baby and she is placed in their anxious arms. As a family we cry, pray in thanks, shake our heads in amazement, oogle over how beautiful she is... and repeat. We are still repeating. Nancy (Rusty's mom) and Kathy (Holly's mom) both come to visit and help take care of Naiya.
May - James and Vicki Hill came to visit us. KyKy graduated preschool.
June - Hmmm, I can't remember what happened in June.
July - We celebrate the fourth of July on the beach, watching a great fireworks display, and listening to the waves crash.
August - Me and the girls take a trip to Idaho for two weeks, and continue on to New Mexico for a week. We got to be there for Josh's (our nephew) baptism. Rusty and Mike stayed behind, which was sad, but every time we called they were leaving or returning from an adventure. I don't think it was too hard on them. Kyky turned five, and we started homeschool kindergarten.
September - I turned 28. Ha ha, not to thirty yet. Jeff and Antoinette Carpenter came to visit.
October - We celebrated halloween as a washer, dryer, tide box, and cinderella. We also saw a beached baby orca whale. Towards the end of the month we left to go back to Idaho for Mike, Holly, and Naiya's sealing. We spent a week in Boise. Rusty and Mike flew back and me and the girls went to my parents house for a week. Holly and I finished our Christmas craft project.
November - Katelyn turned two. We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends.
December - We went to the temple in Laie, and will leave for Christmas in New Mexico on the 19th.

What we do with our days...
Beach going
snorkeling
scuba diving
freediving (Rusty)
ballet (Kyky)
homeschool kindergarten
golf ball hiking
regular hiking
playing baseball
eating smoothies
going to sunshine markets
reading scriptures
bathing Jake (the kids think it is fun and the dog smells good, can't go wrong there)
gecko catching
reading books (Kyky and I finished the little house series this year)
learning the articles of faith (Kyky was the first person in her primary to pass them off. We were done before her 5th birthday)
feeding wild chickens (Katelyn's favorite, they are everywhere here)
running errands (necessary evil)
having lunch with Rusty (on the lagoon at Marriot's Kauai lagoons. We feed the fish after lunch)
golf cart rides (at Rusty's work after lunch)
golfing
primary (Kyky is in CTR 5 and Katelyn is in nursery, just able to stay by herself in the last couple of weeks)
parties with friends (there seem to be alot of parties around here. No complaints!)
traveling (my girls have been on 18 flights this year, counting every takeoff and landing as a flight)
visiting family (the light at the end of the terminal)
picking and eating fruit. It tastes better when you don't have to buy it.
bike riding (Rusty on a mtn. bike, me on my stationery/mtn. bike, Kyky on her bells and tassles bike. At different times of course).
Family home evening
Cub scouts (Rusty and I are den leaders)
Babysitting Naiya (our favorite thing to do, that we don't get to do often enough)
rockclimbing
watching scripture movies (we bought a set for Christmas last year)
eating (can't forget that one).

We enjoy every day, and hope you do too. Merry Christmas to you and your families.
With love and best wishes,
Rusty, Mandie, Kyleigh, Katelyn, and Jake

Saturday on Oahu

On 12-6-08 we went to Oahu for the day. We flew out at 6:15 a.m. and flew back in at 10:15 p.m. It was a quick decision to go, made just earlier in the week. The temple in Laie is closing for remodeling on Dec. 30th, and won't reopen for 18 months. We wanted to go before it closes. Mike and Holly also went. We watched Naiya while they did a session and vice versa. We went in the visitors center and the craziest McDonalds with a water fall. We also went rock climbing in the afternoon. I haven't ever been rock climbing with such a great view. The rocks overlooked the ocean.

I'm really glad we got to go to this temple. The temple grounds were beautiful. From the temple you could look down and see 4 pools of water. The last of them being next to the visitors center where this picture was taken. The drive up to the temple is lined with palm trees, which I love. The visitors center was also fabulous.

It was a great day.

(I am working on Christmas cards. Please leave your address in comments if you don't think I have it Briannie, Mandy, that includes you. I would love to send you a card!)

Thanksgiving weekend-Decorating for Christmas

O.K., so on the Saturday after Thanksgiving the weather was really rainy and windy. We couldn't hike, beach, kayak, etc. We decided it would be the perfect day to decorate for Christmas. We wanted to start with the Christmas tree, but this year we wanted something "Hawaiian." Here they use Norfolk pine trees, and we thought we might want to get one of those. We called and they didn't have any available that day. What to do, what to do? Rusty said, "I have an idea and I think you will really love it, or think I am really crazy." He went on to say, "we need to prune the orange tree anyway, why not cut off a branch of that and make it our Christmas tree." I had to think for just a second, and decided there really couldn't be anything more Hawaiian than an orange tree. Why not? I loved the idea. With saw in hand Rusty and the girls headed out back to cut down our Christmas tree while I prepped the living room. I think the pictures show "the rest of the story."

We love our Christmas tree. I think the oranges really add a tree of life feel, don't you?

Thanksgiving weekend- golfing and Christmas kickoff

Friday afternoon we went golfing at Kukuiolono. We rent two carts and the girls golf when we are waiting for the people in front of us. It is only the third time I have ever been golfing, and the second time for the girls. Rusty goes for work fairly frequently. We really enjoy it. We buy chicken food at the clubhouse and feed the chickens as we go. Everybody has fun. We actually chose golf as a new hobby when we moved to Kauai because we thought it would be something we could all enjoy. It has been.

Friday night we had a Christmas Kickoff with Mike and Holly and the Petersons. We watched Elf and Frosty the snowman. We also ate lots of food, including cranberry bread, white chocalet popcorn, and cheeseball.

What a great way to start the season.

Thanksgiving Weekend- Poipu beach

Our 4 day weekend fun didn't end of Thursday. Friday we went to Poipu beach in the morning. We went snorkeling (and saw a turtle), made sand castles, had races in the water, etc. Mike and Naiya came with us, while Holly participated in her favorite event of the year, black Friday shopping. She tried to talk me into it, but I just couldn't do it. I never take my camera to the beach because I am afraid it will get splashed with salt water. I finally decided I couldn't live in Hawaii and not have any pictures of the beach.

I hope no one hates us for being at the beach in November. If it makes you feel any better, when I stepped out of my car yesterday my glasses fogged up. That's how humid it has been.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day was so fun, complete with warm weather, water slide,

good food, great atmosphere and lots of friends.

We had dinner at the Giles house (big thanks to the John and Wendi) with Rusty's RCM coworkers. Everything was well organized and thought out, down to the tableclothes, plastic dishes and silverware that looked real, and the beautiful centerpieces on the table. Everyone brought food assignments and we had soooo much food. There were about 9 pies and I think 2 of them got eaten. We had brown sugar ham, one regular turkey, a smoked turkey, appetizers, green salads, fruit salads, potatoes, gravy, vegetables, stuffing and casseroles. The girls played on the water slide before and after dinner. Rusty and I played on the water slide with them before dinner. We were too full after dinner to do much of anything. Kyleigh's favorite thing of the day was tripping her friend Carly by sliding down the slide and running into Carly's legs. They thought it was fun and did it over and over again. (Kyky wanted me to be sure and write about that). It is still strange to be playing in the water in November and eating thanksgiving dinner under the shade of palm trees.

Strange is Good!!!

Fruit and fruit pies

Fruit in abundance is another of my favorite features of Hawaii. The fruit pictured are bananas, tangerines, grapefruit, liliko i, and avacodo.

Guava-you can find these most anywhere.
Strawberry Guava and Lemon Guava- lemon is my favorite. I think most of these trees are considered invasive in Hawaii, but the result is delicious. We usually find them on hikes, although there is one lemon guava tree at the golf course.
Papaya-usually buy at a fruit stand or friends give them to us.
Mango-Mike and Holly have a mango tree or they grow wild all over.
Wild pepper-trees are everywhere. Small red bundles of pepper stuff. We want to try mixing some with a little oil and making a meat rub. Very flavorful.
Orange and Lemon- we have both of these trees in our backyard. Kyky loves to create lemonade for us.
Bananas- we have found these on hikes, but they are hard to find. I frequent a fruit stand down the road so we always have fresh apple bananas. They are smaller and sweeter than regular bananas. I love them.
Jabong- we tried one of these from a sunshine market. It is like a basketball size grapefruit. It wasn't anyone's favorite, but we can say we tried it.
Tangerines- we just recently discovered two tangerine trees at the golf course. We grabbed a few from the bottom branches and they were so sweet and delicious. We went back with our fruit picking pole and got a whole bag. Those are gone now, so it is time to go back again.
Grapefruit- We usually get these from friends with grapefruit trees. I'm not a big grapefruit fan, but Rusty and Kyky love them.
Liliko i-This is Rusty's favorite thing. Also known as passion fruit, it grows all around the golf course and we also have a "put Katelyn to sleep after church/look for liliko i" drive that we go on every Sunday. You cut them in half and eat the guts. It is very tart. We like to eat it over ice cream.
Pineapple-how could I forget this? Actually, I buy my pineapple here the same as on the mainland...at costco. However, I have learned how to see if they are rotton. Just look at the bottom. If you see white or green mold spots on the bottom of the core, it is probable rotten on the inside.
Other things we love are ...
Awa puhi- a plant that grows in the fall. You squeeze the bulb and a clear juice comes out. It is a great moisturizer for your hair, so we walk throught the rain foresty areas awa puhi-ing our hair.

Our fruit picker is about 10 feet tall. Rusty bought the basket and some PVC pipe and created his own picker.

Last Saturday was rainy and cold (yes, it really does get cold here). Rusty had a wild hair for some lemon meringue pie. We ended up making a lemon meringue and an orange meringue. The orange was very sweet. Not my favorite, but we shared some with a family that Rusty works with and they liked the orange meringue better. It was quite the family event and Kyleigh is quick to say that she is a very good meringue mixer (which she is).

Jake is the best dog. He likes to be with us no matter what we are doing. The whole time we were baking he laid at our feet just like this. He has been doing this since he was a puppy so we don't even notice that we are stepping right over the top of him every time we move.

If you have been tempted to come visit by the description of fruit variety, I have achieved my goal. We will expect you soon!

Singing, dancing, and watching movies.

Kyleigh "bought" this cool microphone with her tickets when we went to Pojo's in Boise last month. It lights up with different colors and spins. Who knew that a microphone could inspire so much singing and dancing. They play with it every day.

This is the way my girls watch movies. Katelyn's attention span is still short when it comes to TV. She comes and goes, playing and dressing up along the way. And yes, Kyleigh still sucks her fingers.

How Fun!!!

Katelyn turns 2!!!

Katelyn turned 2 on November 18th. I can't believe she got so old so fast. It seemed to take so much longer for Kyleigh to reach her second birthday. We celebrated with two parties. The first was in Idaho with my family. She really didn't understand much of what was going on and she slept through her birthday dinner. The cake and presents woke her up. Especially when she opened a baby doll WITH a carseat. She carried it around the rest of the night, and it was the first thing she wanted the next morning.

We got back to Kauai the night of the 17th. On the 18th we had her party here. It was just us and Mike and Holly. She was more aware of the excitement of presents this time. She opened a box from Nama and Papa and got another new baby (you can never have too many) and a travel aquadoodle, along with lots of little snacks. Aunt Karla and Uncle Mel gave her a fabulous book called "Where are my slippers." It is a book written by a pediatrician that practices on Kauai and illustrated by his wife who owns an art gallery just down the road. It is about a pair of lost slippers (flip flops) that teaches about colors and animals. I highly recommend all of Dr. Carolan's books. Mike and Holly showed up with the exact same gift that we bought for Katelyn. It was a set of wooden blocks to build with. We thought it was so funny that Holly chose the same thing I did out of all the toys at Walmart. We decided to keep both sets of blocks for double the tower building fun. They also brought her some art supplies and a thing of chapstick. The chapstick turned out to be her favorite thing of the night. You can see it in the picture below.

The party was a butterly party. The table was set with butterfly hats and butterfly blower things. I put a baby picture of Katelyn in a butterfly frame so we could see how much she has grown. I even cut out the meatballs that we had for dinner with a butterfly cookie cutter. Cheesy, I know, but fun.

We made a fun butterfly cake. Before dinner we tried to get the perfect picture of the cake. Here is one of the attempts.... (Katelyn just wanted an M&M, so we couldn't get her to look up and smile)

And here is what happened in the process...

I can't believe I got this picture. I snapped at just the right time. It fell on the counter so we just scraped the frosting off the counter and patched up the cake. After the fix it looked like a butterfly does after it has been caught 12 times by a little kid. In the end it tasted good and Katelyn thought it was funny that frosting got on her toes and on daddy's hands (I promise we didn't reuse the hand/toe frosting).

Happy Birthday Katelyn!

Naiya's Sealing

The day Naiya was sealed to Mike and Holly was an eternal joy that is impossible to describe in words. I think it best to just see it on the faces of Mike, Holly, and Naiya.

We made a special trip to Idaho at the end of October and into November to be there for this day. A few people asked us if we would be going for Naiya's sealing and for her blessing. This was NEVER a question for us. We wouldn't have missed it for the world.... but almost because of a marathon. The morning of the sealing I left Rulan and Kathy's house early (we stayed with Rulan and Kathy for a week). It's a good thing. I had to take the girls to Amy and Henry's house so Colby could babysit the girls. A marathon nearly kept me from reaching their house and getting back to the temple on time. I was in tears as I was driving on a dirt road around a mountain to try and find the back entrance to their subdivision. I was by myself as Rusty had gone early to be Mike's escort in the temple. I made it in the nick of time. The ceremony was beautiful. Naiya, in her white dress, looked like the angel from Heaven that she is. Afterwards as we were each congratulating Mike and Holly, Naiya reached for me ( I know she did). They had a huge outpouring of support. Merrill and Nancy flew in. Verna, Phillip, and Susan drove down from Provo. All of Holly's family was there. My mom and dad came from Pocatello. They had several friends come also. We were also able to attend her blessing the next day in Rulon and Kathy's ward. She is such a special little girl. You couldn't help think of all the circumstances that went into her being sealed to our family. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that she was sent to us by a loving Heavenly Father. He knows our needs and the righteous desires of our hearts. We are so blessed to be sealed together as a family.

As icing on the cake...

-Kyleigh and Katelyn got to play with Nama and Papa in Boise.

-We got to go to Pojo's and play.

-We went fishing with Amy and her boys at Glenwood pond, and fed the ducks.

-Kyleigh got to make lots of Christensen cousin friends. She especially got along with Cade.

-Mike and Russ rented mountain bikes and had a great time.

-We got to spend time with Matt.

-I got to spend an extra week in Pocatello with my parents.

-My siblings and I were all in the same place at the same time (rare).

Cute Snapshot.

Kyleigh, Katelyn, and Naiya.

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween has not been a holiday for us this year. Rather, it is a season. We started out the Falloween season with a halloween party for the girls. The Giles family had the party. Kyleigh is just between their two oldest girls, and Katelyn is the same age as their youngest. There were 17 kids, I repeat... 17 kids participating in the party. That doesn't include the babies, of which there were 2 sets of twins. Wendi is so brave. The kids had a total blast decorating haunted houses and pumpkins, doing a costume parade and playing games.



Next was the cub scout halloween pack meeting (for those of you who don't know Rusty and I are den leaders. Rusty also serves in the elders quorum presidency). Each of the boys had a game planned. Rusty and I kept things moving and did a decorate your own cupcake and make a pop up ghost card booth. It turned out really well. All of the boys enjoyed being in charge of a game and all of the families had fun.



Rusty and I went to a costume party last weekend. We had tons of fun there, too. Rusty was a washing machine, complete with dirty socks on the top. I was a dryer, complete with a picture of my own clean laundry behind the dryer door. Mike and Holly were the burger king and dairy queen.



We carved a pumpkin for family home evening on Monday. Katelyn has had a terrible rash and had already had her bath for the night, so she didn't get into it too much. Kyleigh played with the pumpkin guts until it was a smooth ball of schmooooog. She wanted to keep it in the fridge and try to bake it the next day. We made her throw it away and once again we were the meanest parents ever. What to do, what to do.



Tuesday night was trunk or treating/games/chili cook-off at the church. It started to rain before the trunk or treating so it was actually table or treating. The people in our ward are so generous. They give out chips, full size candy bars in cute bags, toys, cookies, pretzels, and handfuls of candy. It is nothing like a student ward. For trunk or treating Katelyn dressed up as a box of laundry detergent. Get it... to go with the washer and dryer. Kyleigh was cinderella. That's kind of a stretch of the imagination. Cinderella doing laundry in her ball gown? Naiya was a small fry... with the burger king and dairy queen. Holly whipped Naiya's costume up a few hours before the trunk or treating. Notice the fry's and her ketchup headband. Seriously, have you ever seen anything so cute?

GG and Gpa and Nama and Papa both sent the girls a box of Halloween fun. We have been drinking from our pumpkin cups, eating candy, playing with the halloween finger puppets, wearing fun headbands, etc. The girls get so excited when a package comes for them.


The Peterson's brought us over a fabulous plate of halloween goodies one night. There were spiders, eyeballs, and the whole nine yards. I have never gotten a plate of Halloween goodies. How fun is that!



We leave for Boise on the night of the 30th, so our celebration is not over yet.



Happy Halloween to everyone.

Golf Ball Sort

A few posts ago talked about the golf ball hike that we frequent at Kukuiolono Golf Course and Park. We continue to go on our golf ball hike and this is the second half of the hike, the golf ball sort. "The sort" is Rusty's favorite part. He likes to collect golf balls and I like to collect books. We have a mutual agreement; I am excited about the huge box of golf balls on the back porch and he is excited when I bring home ten more childrens books from the thrift store that won't fit on our bookshelf. He decides if a ball goes in the keeper box or the driving range container. Kyleigh helps daddy decide where the balls go and she and Katelyn both distribute them to their new homes. Jake chases the balls that Katelyn purposely throws on the deck, then she yells "NO AKE, NO." I count the balls as they are put in their places and then we all ooh and ahh at how many balls we found (usually around 100).

Orca Whale

Yesterday we got a call from Holly as we were eating breakfast. She told us that there was a baby Orca whale on Brenneke's beach in Poipu. We finished breakfast and jumped in the car to see the baby whale. We have seen lots of monk seals and a sea turtle on the beach, but this was quite a site. I have since learned that orca whale do not traditionally habitate the waters near Hawaii, so where this whale came from is anybody's guess. It was scratched up and being pushed back and forth by the surf. It's underside had terrible scratch marks from being dragged over rocks. Behind him in the surf were tiger sharks waiting for some dinner. He was still alive when we were there, but we later found out that they euthanized him and put him on a flatbed truck to take him to a burial spot. It was a big deal. I would say atleast 150-200 people were there when we were there. They had a traditional Hawaiian blessing on the beach for the whale. It was amazing to see the whale, but the situation was so terrible for this whale that it just made your heart go out to it.

Mischief maker

Uh Oh. No wet wipes. There was a whole box. Where did they go?

It seems someone has put them ALL in the TOILET. They then tried to flush them.

Who do you think it was?