What a Loser!

Yes I'm talking about me.

I love looking back on my blog but that hasn't encouraged me to post anything in the past 8 months. So much has happened that it is pointless to try to cover it all. Hopefully I can hit the big ones though.

Hunter turned 1 in January. Really? Has he been with us an entire year? I can't imagine our litte family without him. He is absolutely my angel. Shawn says he is a brat and that is probably true but he makes my heart sing. I look at that little boy and I know the world is better because he is here. He is a tease already and loves to make us laugh. He is really in to biting me and that pretty much stinks but we are working on breaking that little habit. His new trick is blowing kisses and pointing out all of the noses in the room.

We had several parties for him, one at home on his actual birthday, one at Tena and Gerald's and one in Pocatello. He was all birthday'd out.

We had a bit of a scare at the end of January. Hayden was trampled by a horse. He got bucked off and kicked around by one of his Grandpa's horses. It was very scary for everyone there (luckily I was not). Shawn called me on the way to the doctor and I met him at the clinic. All things considered, he lucked out. He received about 12 stitches above his left eye, a broken left arm and several bumps and bruises on the rest of his body. It was another reminder to us that life is so fragile and so precious. We are so thankful that he was not hurt more than he was and that he is still around to tell the tale. Shawn and Gerald were both traumatized as they saw the event unfold. I'm thankful for good doctors and nurses that took care of him and got him through a very scary experience.

He made it to his 9th birthday in February. His cast was off and we went swimming at the pool here in Blackfoot again. It was a fun time.


Hadley attends a cheerleading class at her after school program. She enjoys it and I like it because they actually perform but only a couple of times a year. She had a performance last weekend at a local dance competition. She was so nervous about the performance. She has decided to grow her hair out again. It is long enough to pull back in a pony tail but not long enough to flip up like she wanted to. I got her a little hair piece that made her hair look a little longer. I think her hair became her favorite part of the day. She showed everyone "her wig". Her little squad did a good job in their performance. I couldn't get the video to upload and and this is the only pictue that I have of it. I hate it when that happens.

That's her the first in lin on the right....

Hadley is doing so well in school. Her reading is improving every day. She received several awards at the last school assembly including being nominated for the principal's award. She is actually the youngest one in this picture. The boys are in the second grade. I forget how tall she is because I'm with her every day but she does have some height on her side.

Hallie was also very fun to as she danced along with the other performers. Hadley's group was he 27th performance so we had several songs to watch Hallie join in.

Hallie loves to dance an sing. She is constantly making up her own songs for us to listen to. She is such a joy in my life. Hallie is the child that starts yelling for you like there is something wrong and when you run into the room to find out what she needs she just needed to tell you that she loves you.

Hadley and Hallie attended a cheerleader camp at Snake River High school. It was fun for them and while I don't expect either of them to pursue cheerleading when they are older, they had a good time at the camp and did a great job performing during the half-time of a varsity game the next week. Again the video wouldn't upload I'll have to try again later.

So I missed about 5 months of fun but I guess I can just try harder to keep up with the blog world. Until next time (hopefully sooner than later)................

First Day of School (a week or so late)

The kids started school on Wednesday and I started on Thursday. Has it already been over a week? School is crazy busy for me so far and I've still got 14 weeks left. Enough about me though.

Hayden is my mighty 2nd grader. He came home from school in a great mood and proudly stated that he loved his teacher. I hope that he is able to sustain this attitude all year long. He is so big and so responsible and I am so thankful that he is mine.

Hadley is in kindergarten. It was not as emotional for me to send her off to school, this in part because she rode the bus with her big brother who I know will take care of her and she has the same teacher that Hayden had for kindergarten and she is AWESOME!!

Little Miss Hadley striking a pose

Hadley's teacher asks the parents to make a scrapbook page of the kids to use on the first day as a get-to-know-you tool. Here is the one that Hadley and I made. I am by no means the scrapper that many of my cousins are but I think it turned out OK.

Front (we only got 1 page)

Back

I thought that Hallie would enjoy her mornings without her siblings but she actually gets sad when they leave in the morning and asks where they are all day long. That brings her mommy such joy. It makes me so happy when they love each other the way that I love them.

Hallie posing with Hadley

So we survived the first week and are planning for a great year. We hope the same for everyone else out there too.

Lucky Ducky!!

Last Saturday we went to a safety fair that the city of Blackfoot held. The kids got new bike helmets, got to go through an ambulance and a smoke house to teach them about what to do in the event of a fire. While there they put their names in a free raffle for several things including a bike. Yesterday we got a call from a local auto dealer saying that Hayden won. Hayden was so excited he called just about everyone that he could think of. Hadley about had a nervous break down and we had to have a lengthy discussion on how it is important to be happy when something good happens for someone else. She finally decided that she was happy for him but sad for herself. At 5 I think I probably would have felt the same way.

Anyway, I think that I might have Hayden pick some numbers for the powerball on Saturday.

One down, one to go

Earlier I had posted that I had failed as a parent in teaching my kids to ride a bike. Well cross that one off the list. Hadley loves her bike. She would ride up and down the road with her training wheels, she couldn't get enough. She finally broke one of the training wheels off. Devastated, she just couldn't stay off the thing and decided to take her dad's advice and just ride with one until we could get it fixed. Shawn noticed that she wasn't even using the one and off they came. Here is the video that Shawn got with his phone.

Boy was Hayden mad. He wasn't even interested in his bike until he saw Hadley without her training wheels. It took him all until the next day to ditch the training wheels. Here he is on 2 wheels as well. Here is the video footage of Hayden. Mind you, he is on Hadley's bike, his is much cooler (he asked that I put that in here).

In celebration, I bought a child seat for the back of my bike. Hallie absolutely loves it. We are bike riding fools. This is good because I need to get off my butt. I have spent much of the last eight months on it studying and it shows. The weather is finally cooperating and we have had a blast. Here's to a fun bike-riding summer.

School pics

I managed to not get professional pictures of my kids last year. I have always hated that there weren't as many pictures of me as my older siblings. Well Mom and Dad- I forgive you. I now understand how life gets in the way with multiple children and I only have half as many as you did. This year I decided to take the girls in to Hayden's school when he had his spring pictures- yes I am that dorky mom. It was nice because I got to be first in line, it took just a few minutes (Hallie was a bit apprehensive), and they sent the pictures home with Hayden- I didn't have to pick them up. I don't think that they turned out as wonderfully as I'd hoped. They used a green screen for the background and the kids look photo-shopped (is that even a word) in to the pictures. At least they are done. Next year Hadley will be in kindergarten so she'll get them done at school and I'll only have to worry about getting Hallie in. I'm hoping that we can get some family pics too.

Coach pitch

Hayden has started his baseball season. He has graduated from t-ball and is now in coach pitch. His dad is again an assistant coach. I think that this might be his last year of baseball. He really doesn't seem to like it. I think that his father has had a bit of an influence on him because he doesn't like it much either. Anyway, the sponsor for his team is Wake Up Call, a local coffee shop. Hayden was appalled that his shirt has the word coffee actually printed on it. We teased him about being a coffee drinker too (probably didn't help) I guess that makes me happy in a way. He has his own belief about it and knows it is something to stay away from. Here are some pictures that I took of his first game- last week. I'm kind of a slacker when it comes to blogging lately. Life is not slowing down either but I'll try to keep up.

"Making the decision to have a child- it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." Elizabeth Stone

We attended the City of Blackfoot Easter egg hunt on Saturday. Last year we were late and missed it so we were rushing to get to the area on time. Hayden and Hadley were in the same age group looking for eggs. They are just sectioned off squares with the eggs scattered on the ground. Parents are not allowed to help their children so I sent them to the front of the group and waited for the horn to blow. At 11 the horn blows and the mayhem begins. Kids running in every direction, the lady on the P.A. telling the parents to get out of the hunt area and parents ignoring the P.A. lady and helping their kids anyway. I'm in back of a wall of parents. Here are some pic's of me holding my camera up above the crowd and taking random shots after the horn was blown.

The eggs are gathered and here comes Hadley pulling her friend Abby out of the crowd, right back to me. Where is Hayden? He must be looking for me so I wait, and wait, and wait. Now I'm getting nervous. I have not moved from the place they left me and afraid to move. I'm scanning the crowd and absolutely freaking out on the inside. I cannot show this concern to my two girls because this will not help the situation in any way. The lady on the P.A. is telling everyone to get the items out of their eggs and return the plastic egg shells for next year. I decide to expand my line of sight and move so that I can see both where I was standing and the line to the egg return. Still no Hayden. Internal freak out increasing by the minute. I finally go to the Chamber of Commerce stand and talk to our friends, Curt & Maureen Green who are there. I ask them to help me look for Hayden. They put out the word and start searching for my son. I also talked to one of the officers there, who both Shawn & I work with, and tell him that I can't find Hayden. I'm dragging the girls all over this park looking for Hayden and trying not to let my internal freak out become external. I finally decided to go check my car because Hayden would go back there if he couldn't find me. I leave my cell number with Curt and tell the officer that I am going there & if when they found Hayden to take him to the Chamber of Commerce stand and call me. I take off to the car. Now, I didn't park the car in the Grove, I parked several blocks away, across one busy street and behind a restaraunt. That is why the car wasn't the first place that I checked. Hadley finally got on the stroller because she couldn't keep up with me. I was almost to the busy street when I see Maureen and a posse (including her children and Jon Croxford) walking with Hayden. I almost broke down right there.

When Hayden couln't initially find me, he decided to go and play in the toys on the other side of the park. After a while he got worried that I hadn't found him so decided to go to the car. Maureen saw him crossing the busy street and found him sitting on the grass near the car. Officer Rowland gave Hayden a little lecture (thank you) and we headed back to the car so that I could cry. Hadley was upset because she didn't get a picture with the Easter Bunny or get a balloon because we had been too busy looking for Hayden. We went back to the park and let them get a picture and let Hayden return his egg shells. Unfortunatley, they were out of balloons. Here is a picture of the kids with the Easter bunny. Hallie would not let me get within a 2 foot radius of the him so she is not in the picture.

Well, part of my heart was gone for a bit and I hope that I never have to feel that abscence again. I think that this was the worst feeling that I have ever felt. I am so thankful to the many people who helped look for him. I was amazed at how many people dropped what they were doing and started to look. I keep thinking of the parents who's children are lost or have been taken and I ache for them. I have been looking at ways to get involved in the center for missing and exploited children. There are tons of little things that can be done is registering you phone to received real amber alerts, not just the fake ones that get sent through your area. The site to do this is:

http://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/

I have also posted a link for Idaho missing children. If you google the National Center for Missing and Exploited Chilren there are several links that you can post for yourself as well.

Spring fun

Since Spring keeps teasing us with a few warm days here and there, we took advantage of them and went to the park.

Hayden & Hallie playing on the big toy. Hallie had already ran to her favorite toy- the tire swing. She spends her entire time at the park on it usually. I remember loving the tire swing myself. Now I can barely swing on a normal swing without getting sick.

Hayden joined Hadley and some "new friends", as Hadley likes to call everyone that she meets, on the tire swing. I pushed Hallie on the swing. Hallie loves the swing and could easily be on it for hours if she could find someone to push her that long.

I have to say that Shawn and I have failed as parents in two particular things (I'm sure that there are more). Our kids don't yet know how to ride a bike or swim without life jackets. I have no one to blame but myself (but I think that I will blame Shawn anyway :)). At 5 and 7 years old, our two oldest can both drive a 4-wheeler but are just learning to navigate on a 2-wheeled bike without training wheels. We are in the water all summer, but in a boat with our life jackets on. My goal this summer is to get them through swimming lessons and to have them riding their bikes without the training wheels.

Here is Shawn helping Hayden w/out training wheels. Notice Hadley in the background. She likes speed and still has her training wheels on too. Numerous times we had to call her back. She also wrecked into the bushes about 5 minutes after this picture was taken. All of the sudden she was standing on the bike path with no bike. It was way off the walkway. Did she slow down once Shawn pulled it out of the bushes? No, once she got all of the stickers out of her sock and shirt, she was off again.

Hallie was being pushed in the stroller. She does OK for a while but gets tired of just sitting there. This picture is about 30 seconds before her breaking point.

Happy, happy birthday Hayden dear.

Hayden's birthday was on February 20th. I am absolutely blown away by this. How he has changed from the little angel that I brought home 7 years ago. Can seven years really have gone by this fast?

Hayden is my little miracle. He came after a long time of trying and a touch-and-go pregnancy. He was born by emergency cesearean. I have said this before but the single-most defining moment in my life was when they placed him in my arms. Shawn left the O.R. with him after he was born but I had to stay in recovery. It was a horrible hour to wait until I could see him but finally they wheeled me into my room and brought him to me. The moment he was in my arms, I had a reason for being and I knew that I would do anything for him and still would.

Hayden has grown in to such a caring little boy. He has the heart of an angel. This year for his birthday I told him he could have a friends party and then we would celebrate with his family the next day. We were on our way to his school and he started naming who he wanted to come. Then he paused for a minute, took a deep breath and finally said, "Mom, I don't really think I need a friend party. My family is way more important to me". From the mouths of babes. I almost had to pull over from the wave of emotion that came over me after that one.

Well we did have a really fun party at the swimming pool. A couple of his friends from school and family members were there. Here are some pictures that were taken that night.

The next day we went to Pocaetllo for a birthday party with the family that wasn't able to make it up on Friday. We went to Arctic Circle, had cake and opened presents. The kids played hard and the adults visited. In the mess of getting everything I forgot my camera so no pics of that one. Maybe I can talk my mom into sending me some to post. It was all in all a good birthday weekend.

Hayden, I am so thankful that the Lord blessed me with you. You are truly one of my reasons for being. I love what you have become and look forward to what you will be.

Christmas Program

Hayden's Christmas program was last night. The entire school performed together. It was a little wierd. The whole school was on the stage together. There was almost no rhyme or reason to how they were placed on the stage. Some of the kids were wearing reindeer ears which blocked the kids faces behind them (yes Hayden was behind a reindeer head).
Hayden as always did great. He is such a funny little singer. I only got footage with my camcorder and have not yet downloaded that to my computer. Footage to follow.

Basketball

And it begins....

Hayden started basketball this week. He played in his first game ever on Saturday. He is number 44. This is significant because his Grandpa Humpherys was number 44 as well. Shawn is his coach for this sport as well. Hayden doesn't really like this because he says Shawn is mean to him.

Truth be told, Shawn is harder on Hayden than the other kids but he still isn't quite as bad as Hayden says.

The 1st and 2nd graders are on a team together. Hayden is already learning a lot. It was so funny to watch them play. The 2nd graders are obviously a little more comfortable with the game the the 1st graders. Here is a little video footage of the game. Hayden mostly skips around on the court. We (Shawn) discussed being a little more aggressive and going for the ball.

It was fun to go to his game- the first of many I'm sure..

Halloween

Halloween is always way too crazy. I run around all day trying to make sure that everyone gets to see the kids. Hayden had a Spook Parade at school. He chose to be a scary grim reaper and had this yucky mask that had blood flow in it. The school does not allow masks so I had to paint his face. This would all be fine and dandy but I lack in the whole Halloween make-up department (any make-up department for that matter). He looked scary but only because he is such a great little actor. Here are some pictures of him during his spook parade.

Hayden and Jay were right next to each other in the parade.

Hadley was "Dorothy" she looked so cute.

Hallie was a scarecrow. She had a cute little hat that went with the outfit but she wouldn't keep it on. She also did not like pictures on Halloween. She cried and ran to me everytime I tried to take one. Example:

I didn't get any pictures of Hayden with his mask on. I'll post one when my mom sends one to me. ** Thanks Mom, for the pictures. Here is Hayden in his mask

And one more of Hallie. Again sans the hat (it's sitting next to her on the couch)

All in all it was a fun day. Hadley is a trick-or-treatin fool. She ran from house to house like a little trooper. She would have gone all night if we had let her. I think she got double the candy that her brother got. It was a nice night and will always be happy memories.

Corn maze

We visited the corn maze at Swore farms last weekend. It is just for kids. This is the second year that the H's and I have attended. Heather helped me with the kids and Heidi Graham also came with her kids.

There is a farming question at each intersection with a direction for each answer, if you choose wrong, you get a dead end, choose right and you end up at another question. There were also several kids handing out candy throughout the maze as well.

At the end, they had a activity center and the kids got their face painted, did leave rubs and made bird feeders. It was a fun little trip and one we will try to make every year. I was so proud of myself for remembering my camera but when I got it out, the battery was almost completely dead. The best of intentions (blah, blah, blah)

A huntin we will go....

Shawn took Hayden hunting last week. They went with cousin Barry. Although nothing was slain, they had a great time together. Here are some pictures that Shawn took.

Isn't Star Valley beautiful?

Cutest boy-ever!

The first snow fall of the winter or fall or whatever it is

It really came down on Saturday night. We woke up to a lot of snow on Sunday. I would give a guess as to how much but I'm always wrong so just know that it was a lot. On Sunday afternoon we ended up at Tena and Geralds (Shawn had to get the snow machines on the trailer as there was a near Search & Rescue mission he had to get to). Anyhoo- Hayden and Hadley played outside and had a blast. Here is the fruit of their labor. They are accessorized with Grandma's things. Thanks Grandma for always making your house so much fun.

Here is Hadley posing with her snowgirl. She named her Sadie. (Hayden was mad at his dad for a snow fight that he lost so he wouldn't pose)

Hayden I love you too

Hayden loves to leave us "presents". He draws pictures and leaves them all over for us. He usually tapes them to the front door for Shawn to get when he comes home from work. Or he will leave them on the stove so I will get it when I go to cook a meal. The other night when I went to get in to bed, I found these presents.

(Elf anyone?) His spelling gets better and better each day. I love being Hayden's mother and I know that Shawn loves being his father. We are so blessed with our wonderful children. While it isn't always easy, I wouldn't have my life be any other way.

Playtime

The Graham kids were at our house several times this week. My children have so much fun with them. Here are a couple of pictures I caught of them playing:


Star Wars is a huge part of my house. Here is Jay (Darth Vader) and Hayden (Anakin)- they are the same person just at different stages in his life.

Hadley cannot be left out. She decided that she was Padme. (look behind the chair and you can see where Hadley peeled the paint in our front room. She is so my child I love to peel too. I just wish it wasn't something that I have to fix now)

Hallie and Kaitlyn are still deciding that they like each other but they want to do whatever the other is doing. Here they playing on the piano bench.

I somehow erased the pictures of Sarah and Hadley dressed up as princesses, so I'll have to get some more to post later.