Happy Easter.

We always try to make Easter a Gospel centered holiday. The girls get a small gift, usually a religious book of some sort. This year each of the girls got a small journal and the family got a large "Book of Mormon for Latter Day Saint Families." We plan on helping the girls write short entries in their journals on days when we do something fun or different, or whenever they want to write in it. However, we also love secular Easter traditions. This year we dyed Easter eggs on conference Sunday (we get done with conference at noon here because of the time difference, so it leaves alot of time for other things). We made Grandma Graves' rice krispy Easter nests for family home evening. During the middle of the week the girls got two packages, one from each set of Grandparents. They arrived on the same day. This has happened once before on a Valentine's day and it is like Christmas morning. Just look at the picture and you will see what I mean. While Rusty and I were manning a booth at Makahiki (the oldest show in scouting, look for a later post) Holly and my friend Wendi took the girls over to the public Easter egg hunt that was being held across the field from Makahiki. Kyleigh got a prize egg and came back with 4 new things of play-doh. That afternoon we had another Easter egg hunt in John and Wendi's back yard. If you are anything like me you will be shocked to know that Wendi had 240 plastic eggs to stuff. I made my huge contribution of 30 eggs and we let the kids have at it. John and Wendi have three daughters, ages almost 7, barely 5, and 2. Of course, Naiya was there too. We bbq'd chicken afterwards and had a picnic. That night Rusty and I went on a date so the girls were up a little late with their babysitter. As a result of all the fun and a late night, Rusty and I had a super quiet Easter Sunday. The girls BOTH fell asleep after church and didn't wake up until we woke them up 4 1/2 hours later to go have Easter dinner at Mike and Holly's. Hope everyone else had a great Easter Holiday.


Both the girls are sitting the same way. I think that is so cute.

One more try

We have officially started a garden.....again. We do not have green thumbs. We have no house plants, not even one. We haven't even had much luck with the flowers you can buy that are already bloomed and all you have to do is drop them in the ground and water them. Our gardens of the past have failed, miserably. We decided that since we live on the "garden isle" we will give it one last go. If it doesn't work here we give up. We tilled up a spot of ground that has held only weeds since we moved into this house. We planted corn, lettuce, beans, cucumber, carrots, onion and green onion directly into the ground. We started our tomatoes, watermelon, bell peppers, chili's, and pumpkins in the house. The garden spot isn't really that big, but we just have a few of each plant. Rusty is all kinds of excited about this. Every day he comes home and almost passes me by to hover over the pots on the countertop, then reports on the progress of each plant. I'm kind of surprised he hasn't named each one. So far our lettuce, corn, carrots, green onion, onion and one bean plant are growing. Just tonight we transplanted some tomatoes, peppers, and watermelon. For fun we are even going to buy a topsy turvy to see if it works (we'll let you know).

Our lettuce sprouting.

Newly planted garden with pretty rows.

Garden helpers.

Katelyn and daddy planting some seeds.

The girls are excited, too.

Cantelope Animal

Rusty has been telling the girls lots of his hunting and trapping stories lately. Tonight at dinner Kyleigh told us that she wished there was a cantelope animal so we could go hunting for it. We asked her what she meant. She said, "you know, a cantelope animal. So you could eat all the cantelope meat. I like cantelope." If anyone knows where we can find a cantlope animal, let us know.

Yesterday we watched Kyleigh's friend Alyssa, while her mom and dad went on a hike with some visiting family. We had lunch with Rusty on the lagoon, fed the fish, volunteered at the humane society (playing with a kitty and two 7 week old puppies), made rice krispy treat easter egg nests, and friend picture magnets. These are the pictures that we made the magnets out of.

This morning Kyleigh was playing and this is what popped into her head..."Guess what mom, if you are thinking of a really fun song while you are walking and you have clicky shoes on, the shoes start singing the song." "Isn't that funny." Yes, it is sooo funny!

Happy St. Patty's Day.

We decided to take the dye everything green route, as opposed to the corned beef and cabbage, since that doesn't even sound good. What is it, anyway, and am I even spelling it right? We had green eggs for breakfast. For dinner we feasted on split pea soup with green rolls, sliced green apples and green milk. We enjoyed green chocalet chip cookies for dessert.

A few years ago we had Kyleigh paint and decorate a box for St. Patrick's day. We told her if it was shiny enough the leprechans would spot it in the windowsill and maybe leave a treat inside. Of course, they would hide it because they are mischevious little buggers. Kyleigh remembered that and wanted to do it again this year. I pulled out some little ceramic pots and the girls painted them green. Although we had big plans to decorate them, the painting was as far as we got. Then I realized the leprechans didn't really have anything to put in the pots, so they raided my birthday present stash and came up with a puzzle for Kyky and a fairy sticker book for Katelyn. At 6:30 am (actually pretty late for the two of them) they appeared at my bedside asking if they could go see if the leprechans found their pots. They hunted for and were happy with the really nice leprechans. They probably think the leprechans are going to be that nice every year, but you never can tell with leprechans. Happy St. Patricks day!

Rusty turns 31!

Happy Birthday to Rusty. Yes, I know his birthday was in January, but it's never too late to mention that my handsome prince had a special day we don't want to forget. To celebrate, we had Mike and Holly over for dinner. I went all out with a four course meal. First we had a green salad, second cheeseburger soup, third was the main course-bacon wrapped filet mignon, and for desert we had an array of goodness. Rusty went back and forth for weeks on his choice of dessert. He wanted either a cheesecake, a pumpkin pie, or a peach pie. I made him a pumpkin cheesecake, and three miniature pies. They were peach, apple, and triple berry. As far as gifts, he had recently been to Hana Paa Divers on Oahu and loaded up on new spearfishing gear. So instead of spending alot of money I gave him the best thing ever, I cleaned up the rotten oranges from the orange tree in our back yard. That is pretty much the worst job ever. After they fall from the tree the bugs dig in and eat the whole inside, leaving only the shell. When you get one that is half eaten the bugs slime out while you are trying to get it to stay on your shovel. I don't know if it is all mental or not, but when you are finished you itch for a day. Anyway, I took a picture of the oranges on the ground, then an after picture. I printed them and put them on the table so he would see I am the best wife ever. I also gave him a box full of peach kerns. Peach kerns is Rusty's drink of choice for unwinding after a hard day. Mike and Holly gave him a new backpack for adventures and a pair of clippers with a keychain attached. In case you didn't know, Rusty is the designated family finger/toe nail clipper for kids. Every Sunday he whips out his clippers and three sweet little girls (Kyky, Katelyn, and Naiya) throw mini fits until the job is done. Well, he had a good birthday, so until next year, Happy Birthday Russ!

Katelyn is growing up!

In the last few months Katelyn has had a lot of exciting firsts. She is getting bigger right before our eyes. She went on her first bike ride (with a lot of help from daddy), frosted her first cookies, painted her first craft, got a big girl bed, and has her very own decision to make by way of bedtime stories (we have to read two, now). Her personality is shining through and she makes us laugh every single day. She walks with "air lats" when she is on a mission and when she runs down a hill her cheeks bounce up and down. She loves to play "friend" with KyKy and her favorite friend name is Kara. (Friend is a game where everyone gets a new name and a new scenario. Often KyKy, with a new name, is on an airplane. While I am trying to get some kind of work done, I have to repeatedly call her. She usually doesn't answer because she is on the plane, so when she calls back I have to be available. Other scenarios include: someone just had a baby and I have to babysit, my "friend" wants to come over and play, so I have to ask my mom, or I am the baby sister and I have to listen to my bosses, who are friends with each other). I am thrilled that Katelyn has joined in the friend game. I get the dishes done so much faster when I am not the only friend playing the game. Of course, we can't imagine life without Katelyn.