Random catch up

Hello Everyone. Sorry I haven't posted anything for so long. We have been having trouble transferring pictures from the camera card to the computer. All is well in Hawaii. Kyleigh is having a great time at preschool and can't wait until Tuesday and Thursday come around. She loves ballet, and just yesterday Daddy came home early from work so he could go watch her at ballet class. She also loves the beach and would be there every day if she could. Katelyn loves the beach too, but it wears her out.



Katelyn is growing bigger and bigger. Just the other day we found her fifth tooth. Her personality is busting out. She is a girly girl like her sister. She loves shoes, bracelets, and purses. The other night she got ahold of some glittery lip gloss and had it smeared ALL over her face. She was pretty proud of herself. She thinks it is fun that she is getting big enough to do some of the things her big sister does, like play on the swingset.

Rusty and I just took another golf lesson. It was our third of four lessons. We learned how to drive the ball. Our teacher has all kinds of fun ways to learn, including the luau swing where we carry the tray, slap the pig, spear the fish and pull the net in, then stop for our kodak moment. If anyone needs golf lessons on Kauai we can recommend a great instructor.

Random picture of Katelyn who we frequently call Queen Kong!

We continue to volunteer at the humane society. The last time we went we made quite the scene. We took a dog out on a leash to the courtyard. I let Kyleigh hold the leash and the dog pulled it out of her hands. The courtyard is supposed to be enclosed but a delivery person had the door propped open and the dog escaped. Luckily the kennel staff was right there and they were right on it. They had the dog back very soon and I got a lecture on how to hold a leash. I don't think we will venture out to the courtyard again for a while.


Do you know what the picture below says? Ten points if you can figure it out.




This is the sign we made for Kyleigh's half birthday party. It says Happy Birthday Kyleigh, with only half the letters. We celebrated her half birthday on April 26th. We had been stuck inside for the week before because we were sick. We needed something fun to do, so we planned a half birthday party. We had half moon shaped cookies for desert and half sopapillas to make navajo tacos. Mike and Holly joined us. We couldn't sing happy birthday on a half birthday so we said "Hap, Hap, happy half birthday," and of course no presents at a half birthday (although KyKy tried to weasel some presents out of it). We are looking forward to my mom and dad visiting us next week. We are going to meet them in Oahu for 4 days so we are very excited for that, too. In May some friends of ours from Silver City, James and Vicki Hill, will visit. The invitation is open to anyone. We would love to have you!

Christmas 2007

Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas, 07. We did. We celebrated on Kauai with three fun parties before we left for Idaho. One with Mike and Holly to open the gifts to one another. One for Rusty's work. Kids were invited and Santa made a special trip to deliver treats to the kids. Then the next night Santa came back to our church party where we were treated to imu pork and turkey, among other delicous foods. We left for Idaho on Dec. 20th at 9:00 P.M. We made the trip to Idaho with only two major complications. We had an extra 3 hour layover in L.A. for a grand total of 6 hours. The girls were real troopers. The worst part about it was that it was soooo cold, even in L.A. (atleast for us). When we got to Salt Lake City we were one bag short. We figure someone must have taken our bag by mistake because there was one very similar to ours left from our flight. Eventually they returned it and the airline flew it to Pocatello. We got it December 23rd. In the meantime we made due by buying some clearance items at Shopko.


Our christmas gingerbread train.

We had the special treat of meeting our new nephew/cousin, Payton Aaron Olsen once we got to Pocatello. He is the most handsome little honey you ever did see. Tucker, our other nephew was alot more respectful of Katelyn now that she can walk. Atleast he didn't try to hit her every time he saw her-until the last couple of days we were there.

Kyleigh with new baby cousin, Payton.

We did all sorts of fun things in Idaho. Kyleigh helped GG with everything, including making sugar cookies, watching the cranberries pop, and re-decorating the tree after the babies (Tucker and Katelyn) removed ornaments. We had a party with the Graves family on the 23rd and one with the Larsen family on the 24th.

KyKy watching the cranberries pop with GG.

Rusty and I got to go sledding one night. Tyler, our brother in law works at Les Scwab tires so he got some really good tubes and we went to a hill near ISU at night. We went with my sister Darci and her fiance Dan, my brother Nate, and my sister Rissie and her husband Tyler. Of course "normal" tubing was quickly taken over by jumps, shovel sledding, group tube chains, spinning wildly, and human michelin man sledding.

Katelyn, KyKy, Payton and Tucker. Smile (yea right)

Rusty had to come back to Kauai for work a week earlier than I came back. We left the girls with my mom and I took him back to the airport. We stayed overnight in Salt Lake. We got to go to Olive Garden for dinner, the Salt Lake Temple, and around Temple square in a carriage. I've always wanted to do that.

Kyleigh and daddy building a fabulous snowman.

I can't name all of the fabulous gifts we received because I know I would leave something out. I will say the most treasured gift I got was a picture of my mom and dad that they secretly had taken. I have it proudly displayed on my counter. Of course, the best part of the whole season was catching up with friends and family through Christmas cards, and visits. I am already looking forward to the next holiday season.

OUR SPECIAL PLEA

Thank you for coming to read our special plea.
Rusty and I have been blessed to live parallel lives with our best friends, Mike and Holly. We are also very blessed in that Mike and Holly are not just friends but family. Rusty and Mike went to college together, wrestled together at Boise State and graduated with the same degree during the same ceremony. All four of us moved to Utah after graduation and one at a time we made our way back to Idaho. We bought our first houses within a few months of each other. We got our first family dogs within a few months of each other. We all ended up moving from Idaho to New Mexico within a few months of each other. We built houses and became next door neighbors. Now both houses are for sale and we have made our way to Hawaii together. Holly's family didn't just welcome Mike into their family when they were married, but Rusty and I became part of the family also. We've been on vacations, big and small, together. Countless road trips from Idaho and Utah to New Mexico and back, with new adventures each time. Yes, we've been blessed with parallel lives, except for one thing.



Mike and Holly in Waimea Canyon, HI 2007

During the last nine years Mike and Holly have been privy to countless pregnancy announcements, baby births, baby blessings and lots of growing up. Two of those babies are ours. Despite an incredible desire for children and countless medical options available today, Mike and Holly can not have children of their own.

Holly with baby Kyleigh. Aug 2003.

They were the first people to the hospital when both of our daughters were born. Their house was the first place Kyleigh slept away from home. She was four months old. Katelyn's second word after Mama was Mike. They have a room in their house called the care bear room. It was designed as a special place for Kyleigh and later Katelyn to play at Uncle Mikey and Aunt Holly's house. Just this week Rusty had a large mirror at work that had been removed and they were going to throw it away. I said I didn't have a use for it, but Holly's first thought was "Yes I want it, I'll find somewhere to put it so Kyleigh can have a little dance studio at my house".

Uncle Mikey and Katelyn. Nov. 2007

I think it's safe to say that we have firsthand knowledge of the amazing parental qualities of our best friends. Through lots of prayer and study they have made a committment to adopt. We have been on a lot of journey's with Mike and Holly and this is no exception.

Mike, Holly and Kyleigh. Dec. 2004

I am not one to "solicit." However, they say that the majority of adoptions happen because somebody knows somebody who is trying to adopt a baby. So our special plea is that you will spread the word- you know somebody who knows somebody who is trying to adopt a baby. We don't care how you pass the word. Copy this and e-mail it to friends. Remember Mike and Holly when adoption comes up in a conversation. When your families are gathered around you during the holidays read our message. This is of eternal significance.

Reading bedtime stories to Kyleigh. Nov 2007

Mike and Holly are adopting through LDS family services. The web site is http://www.itsaboutlove.com/. It's not just about Mike and Holly being blessed with a child, it's also about a child being blessed with Mike and Holly.

Katelyn's 1st Birthday

Happy Birthday to Katelyn. November 18th was the big 1! We celebrated on November 24th with a raging duck party. Those here for the celebration were us, Nama, Papa, Mike, and Holly. Katelyn fell asleep just before party time so we had to postpone the party for a little while. Here she is giving the "I'm one" sign.


I ordered a 3-D duck pan off e-bay. It turned out O.K. but I wasn't thinking and put rainbow chip frosting on it so it kind of looks like a duck with colorful measles.

I also made a cheesecake with homemade caramel sauce died blue for water. I ordered some fairy tale rubber ducks to decorate. My favorite part of this recipe is the carmalized walnuts so I couldn't do without those. Just pretend they are the loyal subjects of the king and queen duck. This was for all of us who didn't get to play in the duck cake.

Katelyn was a little unsure at first. Why was there a cake in the middle of the table and why was everyone looking at her?

It didn't take long for her to warm up to the duck. She poked, smashed, smeared and ate the duck into oblivion.

We plopped her into the sink and hosed her down when it was all over. The cake smeared everywhere wasn't the hardest of the aftermath. It was the sugar high. Oh my Goodness! She was everywhere. It took several hours before she finally calmed down.

First birthdays are the best!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year turned out great. We had Mike and Holly (from here), Merrill and Nancy from New Mexico, Steve from Maui and of course, us. I spent most of the day drugged with a horrible flu like sickness. I can still say it was great because alka seltzer is a miracle drug. Thankfully everyone pitched in and we still had a delicious dinner. We had the traditional feast with a Hawaiian flare. Steve is shown here preparing some fresh coconut. I don't know what he did to it but when it was done it tasted like fish. He also prepared bread fruit which tasted like a "funky version of mashed potatoes." (Quote from Rusty)




Holly delighted our palates with her usual assortment of delicious pies. We had cherry, apple, razzleberry, and pumpkin. My personal favorite remains pumpkin. We had almost as many pies as people, which is less than last year when we had more pies than people (and there were 15 people).



Here is a picture of the spread. Sorry Mom, I know you will be disappointed in the method of serving thanksgiving dinner but you can blame Holly for the can shaped cranberry sauce. It was her masterpiece.

After dinner and digestion we drove up to Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. You can see the Na Pali coastline on the right and the ocean is not pictured but on the left. It was a beautiful day to go. The visibility was amazing.

Hope everybody's Thanksgiving was as fun as ours!!!

Holiday slip n slide

Today is November 18,2007. It is Katelyn's first birthday!!! We are waiting to celebrate until Merrill and Nancy (Rusty's mom and dad) get here for the thanksgiving holiday. I can't believe she is a year old. Unfortunately she is spending her first birthday with a high temperature and a runny nose. Hopefully she will be ready for a party by next week. I just wanted to send out some fun pictures of Hawaiian life in November. I bought a slip n slide before we left because our back yard has the perfect slope for a good slide. The sharks mouth raises up and down as the water pressure switches from the shark to the side of the slide.



This picture is from a week or so ago (before Katelyn was sick). It seems so weird to be out playing in the water when we should be raking up leaves and making leaf houses.

We have turned KyKy into an avid slip n slider. She asks if we can just please slip n slide and sometimes chooses this over the beach.

Da Da Da Da Da Da (think JAWS!!)

Hawaii house tour

Welcome to our house in Hawaii. Now everyone can get an idea of how it looks and what we get to look at from it's location. Once again I couldn't get the pictures in just the right order, but bear with me. This is the living room. You walk into it when you come in the front doors. Little Vanna in red is standing near an unseen couch and toy basket (her favorite.)




Here is the Lanai(deck), just out the back door. We found these chairs at ikea in Salt Lake and brought them with us. The girls think it is so fun to have chairs of their own that look just like ours. You can see the swing set in the back yard and just to the left of that is our orange and lemon trees. The neighbors behind us have an avacodo tree just over the wall and said we can have avacodos whenever we want. Our fruit picker reaches them and we enjoy avacodos and fresh squeezed orange juice on a regular basis. Mmmmmm!

This is a view of the ocean. I took this picture today and it isn't the best of conditions, but you get the idea. The whole front of the house is windows so we get this view from the kitchen, dining room, play area, and living room. You can barely see the change in shades of blue but that is where the clouds stop and the ocean starts.

Upstairs is where all of us sleep. The girls' room is on the left. You can see Kyleigh's bed. Our room is on the right and there is also a bathroom upstairs. We really like sleeping so close to the girls and the view of the ocean from both rooms is fantastic.

The kitchen and dining room are connected by a bar. Through these windows is a great mountain view and you can see into the back yard. The lower windows open upward and there is a small covered path all the way around so when it rains, which is frequent, you can leave the windows open and nothing gets wet. There is no air conditioning in this and most houses. Luckily Kalaheo is known for it's great breezes and we have lots of fans. It really doesn't feel that hot unless it is a windless day.

The dining room connects with what we use as the play area which connects with the living room. I thought I'd better show the play area as it usually looks, strewn with toys. What kind of play area would it be if it were always spic and span?

Not shown: The guest bedroom, which has it's own bathroom where we want everyone to come stay. No really, we aren't kidding. We are expecting our first visitors this month and look forward to more.