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.

Hallie's B-day

Well she's gone and done it. My baby is two years old.

We had a party for her on the Saturday before her actual day at my mom's. It was hard for me to find a gift for her. She is happy with whatever she gets and her older brother and sister have so much for her to play with already. I took her to the store to see what she would want. We got to the isle with the dolls and she went nuts. She went down the isle saying hi and then kissing each one in her reach. She did end up with a lot of clothes and some fun toys.

Here she is with her cake. We couldn't get her to pose.

She kept stealing frosting from it (that's my girl)

Hallie does NOT like the birthday song. She breaks into tears every time we sing it. Even when it is for someone else. Here Hayden is comforting her during the song.

Half of the the bags and boxes are still bigger than she is!

This ended up being her favorite. I got her a stroller for her dolls. She loves to run around the house with it, especially when she can run it into someone else. She also likes to sit in it herself. We will probably have to replace it soon because it is already starting to tear a little from her.

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.

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.

My sunbeam

I know, I know, two posts in a row featuring Hallie. I'm not playing favorites but I was just able to catch this on camera and wanted to share it. Our little Hallie will not talk unless it is her idea but she loves to convey herself through actions. Maybe she'll be a speech pathologist or a sign language interpreter. She loves songs and one of her new things is to have me sing while she dances or does actions. This is the song she was in to tonight and yes she was really in to it until I put the camera on.

Where Is Hallie?

Hallie loves to hide from me. Under the bed, in the linen closet, behind furniture. It is hilarious! She hides and then yells for me to find her. The closer I get, the louder she laughs. I love this game, its my favorite. The other day she yelled for me to find her so I went a looking. This is what I found:

(these are the drapes in our front room)

I kept the ruse up for a little walking around the room saying, "Where's Hallie?" over and over while she snickered. I guess the suspense exhausted her because she had to take a seat.

After an intense search I finally found her!

Dear Hallie- I love you, I love the sweet spirit that you possess. At a year old you have already demonstrated such love and such a wonderful sense of humor. You keep us all on track- reminding us to pray before our meals, telling us to be nice and giving loves when you think someone is sad. I'm so thankful that I'm yours and I'm so glad that I found you. I know that I would be lost without you. Love, Mama

My beautiful girls

Our dear friend Heidi made the girls some darling hairbows for Christmas. Here are some pictures of the girls with some of them. Thanks Heidi!

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)

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.

Fall fun

I took the kids to the park the other day and we had a blast. I love making these memories with them. I remember how much I loved to swing at Ross Park when I was small. Hallie may have me beat. She was in that swing for probably 30 minutes when I finally had to pry her out of it. Hayden was such a good sport he pushed his baby sister as long as his 6 yr old attention span allowed. Hadley had fun playing on the bar where the old teeter toter's (sp?) were. Hadley can make a toy out of anything.

Hallie's Birthday

Hallie turned 1 on April 26th. We had a party in Pocatello for the Christensen's. Hallie walked around eating a chicken strip and drinking everyone's pop, which she threw up on Aunt Heather later (note to everyone too much pop) There was a little boy there celebrating his 2nd birthday with his family and he kept coming over and giving Hallie hugs. We had a princess cake with a tiara on it which Hadley was super jealous of. Hallie got to wear it for about 5 minutes before her big sister commandeered it.

The next day we had a cook out at Tena & Gerald's for the Humpherys. We cooked hamburgers and Shawn made dutch oven potatoes. It was a nice little celebration.