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).