Nooo!-vember

My last post was Halloween and it's the last day of November.  Apparently my claim that I post a few times a month is a lie!

November was dominated by doctor's appointments in Oahu and tee-ball.  We squeezed in a few other commitments and fun, too.

Preschool is so cute.  I love these kids so much.  Zachary had the day off school and was so excited to " help me teach" that he couldn't sleep the night before.  My day was apples.  We read apple books, sang songs, did apple crafts, discussed plants and how they grow, and made an apple pie.  The best part was putting "apple peels" on the kids with crepe paper, taking turns "peeling the apples" and then an apple-peel-crepe-paper dance party.   

On Veteran's Day (immediately after preschool), we made a spontaneous decision to hike Sleeping Giant with a few other families.  It was rainy, but the kids loved hiking with friends and Zac and Kate asked again and again if the giant was going to wake up while we hiked.

Zachary only wanted to do this hike because Chase was going, too.  I love peer pressure, at least right now.

Look at all the kids at the top of the mountain!

Doing hikes without Brady is the one time I feel like a supermom.  Going to the beach, park, etc. are all in the normal bounds of mom for me, but convincing my kids to rough it feels like an extraordinary feat--even when it's only 4 miles.

Even though the kids need convincing every time we hike, they end up loving it.  Really.

Another day, another preschool.  Turkey Day!

We've figured out that this house is not going to be "finished" for a long time.  Brady is plugging away at the leftover projects and we are both working on touches that make a house a home.  It takes a lot of time and some of it is more fun than others.  Remedies for rats in the garage and connecting the exhaust over the range?  Not exciting.  New couches, rug and laundry rack?  Very exciting.  

Brady and Nic attended the Maui Invitational earlier this week to catch a BYU game.  I love that it made them both so happy, despite the loss in 2nd overtime.  It was fun for them to get texts and pictures from so many people who spotted them at the game.

T-ball ended this week.  Five days a week is intense, especially when you calculate the time involved for a game is about 3 hours, and we had 12 games in 4 weeks.  Zachary had excellent coaches that took him from holding a glove for the first time to catching balls at first base.  He said all season that his favorite part of the game is hitting, and asked at least 15 times if I thought he would get a trophy at the end of the season.

During his last game, he hit so far into the outfield, he got a triple.  Golden moment!

At the trophy presentation, his coach said he had an outstanding season, but he should ask Santa for a "real glove" for Christmas.  (Apparently our under-$20 glove for him is not the real deal.)

I know there is nothing special about getting a haircut, but I love haircut pictures.  Kate got a couple inches chopped off her "Repunzel" tangles, and oh, her hair looks so much better.

A huge crab from a recent beach outing.

Kate playing at the park during tee-ball practice.

This month was a lot of doctor's visits for my IVF.  I finally reached a point where my stats looked good enough to start on the actual cycle, so I went to Oahu 6 times over a few weeks.  Those days are intense--finding babysitters and rides, arranging airline travel and appointments that eat up entire days, and picking up prescriptions over and over again with my closest pharmacy in Lihue adds up to a little bit of stress.

With the first of the belly injections, I was trembling and nervous.  Brady cracked me up with, "Darlin, this ain't my first rodeo," and calmly gave me the shot without a blink.  Ha!  This wasn't our first time around and really, the emotionals ups and downs were not as difficult with this cycle as they were in the previous two.

I went in for another status check mid-cycle and without hesitation the doctor declared it a failed cycle.  My body didn't respond to the medications.  Brady and I decided going into IVF that we were going to be optimistic and believe that it would work.  I still think that is the appropriate approach, with the mind-body connection so well established in medicine and health.  But allowing myself to believe it would work meant I had a long way to fall when it did not.

We are starting all over in a few weeks, if everything looks good.  Thankfully, we pulled off the cycle in time to keep our insurance benefit, so although it will end up costing us a lot, it could be a much worse financially.  Now that we've had a week to let the dust settle, it is not as heartbreaking.  I can't say I'm excited to start all over, but I will get there!

For Thankgiving week, we had the privelege of hanging out with our former Kauai (now Oahu) friends, Matt and Megan Ellis.  The kids were so excited to play with their kids, asking every ten minutes when we would meet up with them next, when they would be over to play, who would sit next to them at dinner, and where they would sleep.

First mini-adventure was a hike in Maha'elepu on Wednesday.  More supermom points.

That night, they came over to eat, the boys played ball, and the girls and kids ate pumpkin ice cream from Lapperts.

Thanksgiving morning after the Turkey Bowl, we went to swim at the Hyatt pools with them before heading over for Thanksgiving dinner at Nic and Heidi's.  It was fun to see these swans again after our many, many visits when Zac was a baby/toddler (the Hyatt was basically our backyard at our old house in Poipu).

Thanksgiving dinner was delicious--in my opinion, the best food yet without our parents involved.  Everything was of course made from scratch and there were 28 people to feed with plenty of food and plenty of conversation.  My contributions this year: apple pie, pumpkin pie, mashed potates, green salad and--oh boy--the raspberry pretzel jello salad (groan).  I actually love that silly jello dish but I don't love being famous for anything with jello.  After pies, we bolted off to Walmart (and yes, that does go against everything I believe in) for a couple Black Friday deals, to be revealed in 26 days.

Friday morning, the boys ran the 22-mile, rugged Kalalau trail.  This is Brady's 2nd time running it, and he felt good.  He's still sore but not as bad as expected.  The girls took the kids on the bike path and played at Lydgate.

Love that Spidey helmet.

Sleepy Chase:

They made it back!

The girls followed up and hiked to Hanakoa Falls on Saturday.  I was so excited to have my hiking bud Megan with me again, and also have Jennie and Heidi join us!  It's so fun to get a group together for hiking, and the NaPali coast doesn't get old.  It did rain on us the entire way, with the exception of the last mile, and it was also really muddy, but rain makes for rainbows.

Like always, it was hard to say goodbye to visitors.  It better not be the last time we see these guys!

And now I conclude with a prom picture of my children.  Happy Thanksgiving!  So much to be thankful for, especially family and friends.

Halloween 2014

Kate and Zac counted down towards Halloween the same way they do their birthdays.  Kate couldn't wait to join the other 20% of girls this year as "Elsa" and Zac was stoked to be a black ninja (he was the red ninja last year, and plans to be a golden ninja next year).  I love that all month, they created fall crafts, colored pumpkins, and read spooky books.  Holiday excitement is infectious.

We started out with the ward Trunk-r-Treat, which was well-attended and planned as always.

 Our first pictures on the porch.  I love that Kate is holding Anna.  She said, "I have to hold her because 'Frozen' is a TALE OF TWO SISTERS!"

 Zachary, looking fierce:

 ...and normal:

 Me, looking like I'm trying to hard.  I did love that hat.  The veil section is rad.

 We started out with the ward Trunk-r-Treat, which was well-attended and planned as always.  Tons of chili and creepy desserts, tons of activities, and tons of costumes.

The Israelsons decked out their family in 80s.  The best was baby Makoa, with his tight leather pants and dog collar.

Heidi and Nic killed it with "Frozen":

Ty's troll costume was my favorite this year:

Three preschool friends: Kate, Tate, and Penelope.  Kate was so excited to be part of this unplanned ensemble, and Tate was proud to hang on to the ladies.

 Zac saw his friend Drake holding his head in his hands.  It was all very alarming to him.  He asked again and again if Drake was still going to be the same tomorrow, if it hurt to lose his head, etc.

 He was a little wary about taking this picture, too.

 I wasn't the only one who thought throwing on a witch hat and calling it good sounded like effortless fun.

 Zachary, designing our pumpkin:

 Kate told me to take this picture and show her cousins the dress they gave her:

 We bought several new decorations this year thanks to the arrival of Pier 1 on Kauai, but Zac's comment was that we "hardly had anything."

 Brady, Zac and Kate created these one afternoon when I was in Oahu.  They hung from the pendant lights and were my favorite decoration.

 After t-ball practice the night before Halloween, we carved the pumpkin.  Zachary did not want to touch the insides of the pumpkin (like every year), but finally was convinced to stick his hand in for a couple seconds.  He hated it.

 Kate thought it was really cool and dug in over and over again.  I got all kinds of domestic and made garam masala-flavored pumpkin seeds.  Delicious.

 The kids haven't learned that they can request more fancy designs, which is completely fine with us.  I can't seem to locate our finish product picture, although I assure you it was simple and charming.

We did our normal routes for Trick or Treating on Halloween night.  Kate sang, "Let it Go," over and over and over while walking down the street.  People commented on her right and left.  I wish we had recorded her, but I don't think I will ever forget it.  Zac was good at letting Kate be in the spotlight.  It's hard to be a little older and not get as much attention, but he does not seem to care.  He was so excited to run into friends and compare candy collections.

On to a month of t-ball games three times a week, and then THANKSGIVING!