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!!!