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First Day of Summer

2010-05-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

It was almost midnight when I got home from my Saturday night run to the grocery store. As I was bringing the groceries in the house the air outside smelled like summer. The thick warm air was heavy with the smell of the honeysuckle. My mind was flooded with memories as a kid of being at my grandparent's house with that exact smell as we would catch fireflies at night. This has got to be one of my favorite smells ever. It was the perfect end to the day!

Harper's Blessing Pics.

2010-05-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

Harper's Blessing Day

2010-05-17T21:14:00.000-07:00

Grandma & Grandpa Come to Visit!

2010-05-17T21:12:00.000-07:00

Sisters

2010-05-17T21:10:00.000-07:00

And Then There Was Three....

2010-05-17T21:07:00.000-07:00

More of Harper

2010-05-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

2010-05-17T21:01:00.000-07:00

Where's My Leash???

2010-03-21T12:25:00.000-07:00

These pictures say it all. Missy is Hadley's new best-friend. The first thing Hadley says in the morning is, "Where's my leash?" She then will drag Missy around the rest of the day. When she wants to do something else she hook Missy's leash onto something or lock Missy in her closet so she can't get away. It may seem abusive but Missy likes the attentions (sometimes) and Hadley is entertained while I am with baby Harper.

"Mom! What are you doing?"

2010-02-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

So…..a few days after being home from the hospital I was sitting on the couch nursing Harper.

Chad came up and started to ask me something. He said, “Hey mom, can I go to---(he stopped) Mom! What are YOU doing??”
Me- “Uhhh, I’m nursing or feeding Harper.” I thought he had seen me do this before when I had Hadley. Guess he doesn’t remember.
Chad- “That is weird…..What are you feeding her?”
Me- “Um, milk.”
Chad- “That. Is. Weird….And she just eats it like that?”
Me- “Yep.”
Chad- As he walks away “That is weird.”
Then Chad walks back around to me and says… “Mom, YOU are like a cow!”

I'm So In Love!!!!

2010-02-19T20:55:00.000-08:00

Harper June Wagstaff

born February 6, 2010

11:17 am

7lb.

20 3/4 inches

Can you even imagine my complete joy that this precious little girl is mine? That she arrived safely, and is healthy. And of course the cutest little girl on earth. smile. I forgot how intense the feelings of love are for a new baby. They are such a miracle! It is absolutely impossible to doubt there is a God and a plan in all this when you hold a new baby in your arms. The spirit they bring to this earth is so strong and pure.

So let's get down to details....We went to the hospital on Friday morning only to be sent home. The kids all spent the night at Nana's house so I figured that guaranteed that I for sure wouldn't go into labor. To be honest I was fine to hold out until my due date because I knew it was the last chance to get things done.

Mark left to go running at 5am on Saturday morning. He was going to do a long 18 miles so he told me he would have his phone incase I needed him. I assuured him that nothing was going to happen so no worries. Well...at 6:00 I got out of bed and to my suprise my water broke. I kind of didn't believe it at first so I waited a little to call Mark. It was about 7:am when he got home and I still was doubting if my water broke until I stood up and it was like a scene from the movies. Well, that confirmed it my water had indeed broke. The weird thing was, I wasn't having any contractions.

We got to the hospital and they checked us in and pretty soon we were up in our room. That was about 9am. I continued to say that I for sure wanted the eppidural so let the "eppidrual man" know. At 10:50 my nurse came into the room and said she had some bad news. The "eppidrual Man" wanted to take a shower at home and get ready before he came into the hospital. He wouldn't be there for another hour. By this point I was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable so I was a little annoyed that I was going to have to wait. At 11:00 the nurse came in because she wanted to give me a little pain medicine. I was worried that it was going to make me feel drowsy but I was in enough pain I was happy to have it. She checked me while she was in there and I was at a 6. She left and then I really started to feel the contractions. It was like before a contraction would stop another one would start. I told Mark that I was starting to feel sick. He was trying to find me a bowl or something and then the nurse came back in. At this point I started to feel like pushing. I remember her getting in my face and telling me not to push. I was like- whatever. She checked me again and then immediately called in all the nurses and the doctor. The doctor (I had never seen this guy before in my life) he walked in then said, "Ok you can push now." So I did. I pushed one good time and then at 11:17 am our newest little baby was here! I had my eyes closed and I remember when she was out I opened my eyes to see if she indeed was a girl (I would have been fine to have a boy but it was Hadley I was worried about).

I got to hold her right away and all I could keep thinking was, "I can't believe she is here!" And I couldn't get over how tiny she was! She just seemed so small and petite. She had the longest little fingers and the smallest cute little head (so grateful for that).

I love this picture of Hadley as she intently looks at her new baby sister for the first time!

Mom and Dad brought all of the kids around 2:00 that afternoon. They were all so excited to see thier new sister. The only problem was deciding who got to hold her first.

Hadley in January

2010-02-19T20:29:00.001-08:00

Hadley is growing up too fast and i just don't want to forget any of it. The dress is from Nana. This is one of my favorite dresses but she was cold when I was making her take these pictures-thus the pouty look. This month Hadley has been all about the "head-a-band", her pink skirt, singing her songs and Missy. She is also super excited for her baby sister to get here. Some days all she talks about is her baby sister.

Snow Days!

2010-02-19T20:23:00.000-08:00

This has been the most snow that we have had in a long time! The kids were out of school Friday, church was cancelled on Sunday and still no school on Monday. We have taken advantage of all the snow playing outside as much as possible. The boys would stay out after dark sledding on our hill. They had fun making a jump for their sleds to go over. And we made the biggest snowman (Mr. Slushie) ever! What a great time!

Sleep over with Grandad!

2010-02-19T20:21:00.000-08:00

Science Fair

2010-02-19T20:18:00.000-08:00

Science Fair is a family event since me and my friend Jeni are the ones that started it and continue to be in charge of it. Braden & Chad both had fun entering in their projects. Braden did a bunch of stuff with Diet Coke and Mentos and Chad experimented with water balloons.

Happy Birthday!

2010-02-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

It was Birthday week for me and Mark. The kids spent the night at mom & dad's house then we went out for Mark's birthday.

We were excited to eat at a new Indian restaurant here in town. To our disappointment it turned out to be a huge disappointment. After that we went to Best Buy to look at video cameras. Then we went and saw the movie Leap Year with Tom and Adriane.

On my birthday Mark got me my favorite Cookie Cake. We had a nice celebration at home and then later that night a bunch of my friends had a party/baby shower for me. It was a great day!

Braden Spelling Bee

2010-02-19T20:03:00.000-08:00

Return from Spokane

2010-02-18T19:53:00.000-08:00

When we got back from Spokane it snowed on that Saturday and Sunday morning so church was cancelled. I miss not going to church but it was nice to have the day to recover from being gone to Spokane. The next day school was cancelled and then it was cancelled again on Thursday! It has been so cold that all the ponds around here are frozen. Braden and Chad had fun walking around on the frozen pond at Nana's house.

Snow Skiing

2010-01-10T16:58:00.000-08:00

Monday & Tuesday Mark & Eric and the boys went snow skiing up on Silver Mountain. Brian and his family joined them on Tuesday. They all had a ton of fun and no injuries!

Coldest Polar Dip Ever!

2010-01-10T16:51:00.000-08:00

The Annual Polar Dip was not as well attended as it has been in the past. Most of the adults that would have normally done it (Mark, Brian, Eric, Pat, Myron, & Frank) didn't participate due to the frigid conditions. It was windy and super super cold. There was even ice up on the edge of the water. So Jackson, Andrew, Jon and of course Braden were the only ones to go into the frigid water. Braden was so crazy he went out far enough to put his whole body and head under the water. He was frozen by the time he got back up the the cabin and into a bath tub.

Christmas!

2010-01-10T16:38:00.001-08:00

All of the kids sleep up in the loft so they are ready to go for Christmas as soon as the sun is up. The adults make them wait until everyone else is up (7:30ish) until they can go and see what Santa brought. Santa brought our boys Air Soft guns and stocking stuff and Hadley got her big pink piggy bank.Chad got some more toys and games for the Wii and Hadley got a lot of girly pink stuff and a new doll. Austin got some clothes and electronic stuff and Braden got a lot of science stuff. Mark gave me a special gift. He scanned my old scrapbook from High School and all of the scrapbooks that I have done since we have been married. Then he had them all printed up into nice books. I loved it! I got mark some running gear since he has been training for his marathon.
Grandma got a trip to Hawaii from Grandpa. We all knew about it and when she was opening up the card to tell her she jokingly said, "It's probably a trip to Hawaii." She was totally kidding because she probably thought it was some kind of electronic thing that Frank wanted. To her suprise when she opened it up it was a trip to Hawaii!
We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the cabin eating, playing with our new stuff and just having fun with each other. It was great!

Christmas Memories

2009-12-25T11:30:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Eve activities included---Lots of baking for the big meal that night. I think we (when I say we I really mean mainly Deanne) made 18 pies! That is almost 1 pie for every adult. I made 4 pecan pies. Yummy. Kids decorated cookies. I took some time to blog and scrapbook. Cousins played. Movie watching. Got ready of the Christmas Pageant, had our big dinner and then did Christmas carols with the "boom whackers." Lots of fast talking and fun. It didn't take long for Hadley to figure out that she wanted to be an angel with Natalie. We decorated her costume making various things out of foil. Chad and Braden were sheppards and Austin was a wiseman.

Yummy dinner thanks to Eric. Prime rib and ham and rolls and Yorkshire pudding and baked potato. It was all delicious!!! Yum-O!

Christmas Carols using "Boom Whackers" led by Aunt Carol.

Year of the Guns

2009-12-24T19:02:00.000-08:00

The boys were in heaven when they opened up their gifts from grandad! They each got their own BB gun specially sized for each one. They spent the next 4 hours shooting outside even though it was dark and freezing outside. They stood in the garage and shot stuff out in the driveway. I finally made them stop at about 11 pm so we could go home. The guns are to stay there at Granddad's house and be used there. That is good. I remember when I was a kid we would shoot guns with my grandad and go burn the trash. Hadley got princess dress up clothes. She loved them! And mom....well she also got a gun too. I'm not sure how excited she is about that. Dad wants her to take classes etc...we'll see how that goes.

I love this picture of Hadley and my sweet sweet Grandmother. My Grandmother has got to be the sweetest and nicest person ever. She never complains or is negative about anything. I love her so much and am glad that my kids have gotten to know her and will remember her.

The Week Before Christmas.....

2009-12-24T16:18:00.000-08:00

So.....I think a lot of our Christmas traditions revolve around yummy food. After church we made Christmas sugar cookies. The kids really got into the rolling out of the dough and cutting them out. Then they really got into the frosting--of course.We had Christmas parties at school. These are some pictures of Hadley and Colten. Their nickname at school is "The Mr. & Mrs." They are inseparable.

Vandergriff school parties started in the morning with a big Christmas sing-a-long. Then there were classroom parties later in the afternoon. Chad is with his friend Lauren. And Braden is giving the magnum look?

Chad's Kindergarten Play

2009-12-24T16:05:00.000-08:00

Chad made his acting debut in the Kindergarten play. He got to be the snowman and actually wore the same snowman costume Austin wore when he was in 1st grade.

2009-12-24T15:49:00.000-08:00

After Church on Sunday we made our ginger bread house. I think this is one of our best ones yet! So Braden

Thanksgiving Week

2009-12-24T15:20:00.001-08:00

We had a great Thanksgiving week! The kids had the whole week off from school so we had some time to do some fun things. Sunday night we went to Mom's house for dinner and the Dumini's came over. That night the boys all spent the night including Emossi and Lavani. Good times.
On Monday Mark took the boys for a real overnight hiking adventure. They all had backpacks with sleeping bags etc. and then went to somewhere on the Buffalo River. They hiked in and set up camp. Everything was great until the rain at 1am. Chad was the first to wake up to discover he was sleeping in a pool of water. They had a great waterproof tent but the problem was the ground cover that they put down acted like their own little swimming pool. Their bags were soaked and they slept the remainder of the night without their bags. That morning they got up and toughed it out. They did more hiking (in mud) and found some beautiful waterfalls.
They all had a time of their life despite the rain.

We spent Thanksgiving day at Nana and Grandad's house. We had a ton of pies and 2 turkeys. Mark fried one of the turkeys. Yum. Adrianne and her family also were there.

These are some pictures of Hadley and Nana cooking together. Hadley is a great helper.

We also had our annual post Thanksgiving meal Bingo game. Grandad calls out the numbers and then when you get Bingo you get a prize.

Friday Mark took Braden and Austin to play paintball with a bunch of other people from church. I gladly stayed home with Hadley and Chad. It was fun to hear all of the battle stories when they got back. Braden had a few pretty good bruises that he was proud to show off.

I'm Sleeping Again!

2009-11-24T21:22:00.000-08:00

Can you hear the angles singing??? We have a new mattress!!!!
I have to admit I have never been one to think that a mattress can make that much of a difference in a person's sleep but I have changed. For the past almost 2 months I have hardly slept a whole night in our bed. I have made the couch or the trundle bed my new home from about 2am until morning. We have a 13 year old mattress and it looks fine but after laying on it for a little my while my back would ache and then the pain would go down my leg. Then when I would stand up I could barely walk. Finally this week we broke down and got this mattress from Sam's.
Wow! I can't believe the difference!!! I can sleep through the night. I am a new person!!!!

My Hadley

2009-11-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

I love every minute I get to spend with Hadley -well almost every minute. There are a few minutes where it would be more enjoyable if she were napped but 99% of the time it is a lot of fun. She has become so animated and playful. Lately she likes to pretend that I am Hadley and that she is the mommy. She is so excited to have a baby sister and likes to talk about that all of the time.
One of my favorite times of the day is when I get to tuck her into bed. She has recently moved into her "Pink Room" and no longer has a bottle. So there is a big long ritual that we go through every night. It starts with her asking, "Mommy, tell me all da people dat love me." So I start with myself and say, "I love you, and daddy loves you...." and so on and so on. We name all the people in our family and extended family, neighbors and friends. She loves it. Lately we get through just our family and then I say and your baby sister loves you and Hadley gets so tickeled. She will squeal and then she has to hug me. She is so excited! Then she says, "What are we going to name her?" So then we will go back and forth between me and her saying names that don't really make sense like braden, or Chad. When it is her turn she will put her finger to her lips and think and then say, "I know! Let's name her......Heather!" Then she will laugh and laugh.
Then after we play the "name game" she will say, "What are we going to do with her?" This will go on for a bit all the while getting so excited at the thought of doing things with her baby sister. Then she wants me to tell her stories about her and her baby sister. This all takes quite a bit of time and we still have to sing songs but it is worth it. I can't stand how cute she is when she gets so excited at the thought of her baby sister.
I feel that she is growing up all too fast. I was looking at pictures of her today that were taken back in august and she looks so young! Crazy.

This is a picture of her this morning. The boys were all gone and we went out to breakfast together. Donuts. Yum. Our favorite donut store just opened back up!

Making play-do cupcakes at Nana's house.
Hadley Loves Minnie. This was done on an iphone app.

Tea party at nana's house. Mom and I were playing with her. She was the mom of course and we were having fun giving her a hard time. We were acting like impatient little kids and she tried real hard to be a patient mom. Funny.

Trampoline time at Colten's house

Boutique Show

2009-11-15T16:35:00.001-08:00

So yesterday was the Holiday Boutique Show. This is the second show that my friend Heather and I have done together. It has been a lot of enjoyable work getting ready but it was so worth it! I really have spent only the last 2 weeks cutting out wood, painting etc...to get ready and now it looks like Hobby Lobby exploded in our office/craft room.

The hardest part about the whole show was loading up and unloading the car. Mom came and helped me get everything in the car the night before the show (Mark was gone on a Father/Sons camp out). Then I left early in the morning to get to the convention center to set up.This is a picture of what our booth area looked like when we got there.

This is a picture of what our booth area looked like after a few hours of setting up. (This picture mainly shows my side.) Right before the show opened I got kind of nervous and I was ready to change my price signs and charge $1 for everything. I'm glad I didn't because people came ready to spend money and by the end of the day I had sold most everything I had brought.

I brought in a few pieces of furniture to put in our booth.

This shows Heather's super cute Christmas calendars and on the table are her tile necklaces.

This show I added these little magnet packages. They had 4 magnets on a round piece of metal wrapped up and tied with cute ribbon. I could make these all day! I also individually wrapped each of the magnet boards. I think this added a lot. Especially being Christmas and all. I wish I had a picture of the crowds of people that came. From 10:30-1:30 it was packed with aggressive Christmas shoppers. It was a blast!

The 2 Heathers after a super long and super fun day at our second show!

Razorback Football

2009-11-15T16:06:00.000-08:00

We have had a ton of fun going to the Razorback games this fall. We had a blast going to the Georgia game. Everyone was so excited to see the Hogs at the first home game of the season and we had great seats! We still had a great time even though we lost the game. Seeing the band made us think of uncle Kevin on his mission.

Braden in full Hog attire.

Last week Austin & Braden went to the South Carolina game. After the game they had passes to go down on the field. They were in Hog Heaven! They went to the press conference, played on the field, got autographs from some of the players and then had the same Steak & Shake lunch that all the players had. They couldn't believe that each "sack lunch" had 2 burgers.

Last night Mark took Chad to his first Razorback Football game. Even though Chad is only 6 he really liked being there and watching the game.

Shocker--New Post!

2009-11-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

Well... I guess you could say that it has been awhile since I have posted anything on the blog. That is if you think 9 months is awhile to not post anything. The kids keep asking if I have posted anything since the ice storm and the answer is always the same. Nope. I have been looking for a way to keep up with my journal writing a little better and I think this is the way I'm going to do that. Plus when I found out that it really is true that you can "slurp" or print out your blog it made it seem like a no brainer because getting a cute little blurb book is one of my favorite things. I just need to commit to writing at least once a week instead of once a year. Maybe I will back track a little and put in the highlights from the past 9 months so I will have a more complete journal when I go to print it out. I am going to make this more of a journal with a few pictures and continue to do my yearly family scrapbook. So there will be more writing than pictures. I think.

October-
October has come and gone and let me just say that it was a crazy busy month with Austin and Braden's birthday, Mark's parents coming to visit, soccer, football, guitar, more soccer & football and Halloween parties. In between all of that I have been heavily involved with PTA stuff and trying to complete my 2 page "List of things to do before Feb. 15, 2010". Even though it was busy it has been a great month!

Braden did great on his singing part in the 4th Grade Musical, "Down Home in the Arkansas."

Hadley & Julia in their matching Halloween outfits that Nana made for them.

While Mark's parents were here we went on one of our favorite hikes to Lost Valley. The kids all had a great time hiking, throwing rocks in the river and climbing back into the caves. It was especially nice to have Grandma and Grandpa there with us!

Braden had one of the best Birthday Parties ever! It was a Mad Scientist party. The boys all got to blow some things up and then we had a special Mad Scientist come and set off rockets and cannons with them. It was a ton of fun! Is it just me or do Braden and Grandad look a lot alike in this picture?

Unicycle!!!!

Austin has really been enjoying learning how to play the guitar over the last year. He had out grown the guitar we had borrowed from Uncle Kevin so, for his birthday he got a new guitar!

Austin turned 12 and recieved the Priesthood. It seems really weird to me that I have a kid old enough to pass the sacrament. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was 12.

Yep- that is Mark with Mullet. We went to a costume party at some friends house and so we went as some Bikes Blues and BBQ Bikers.

At the annual Neighborhood Halloween party Kristen & I won first place for our Hog pumpkin!

"I'm a Pink Minnie Mouse!"

Skeleton, Mad Scientist, and Pink Minnie didn't miss a single house in the whole neighborhood. They all had a great time. Hadley seemed scared to say Trick or Treat but loved to yell 'Thank you!" after receiving the candy. She kept saying to me, "This is so much fun!!!"
(Austin is not pictured because he was with Mark on his first Youth Temple trip.)

Austin & Mark had a great experience on Austin's first Temple Trip.

Ice Storm of 09

2009-02-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

It has been so long i almost forgot how to do this blog thing but I had to get on and write about our last week. It started on Monday when school let the kids out at 1:00. I had not paid real close attention to the news and I just figured it was just another over-reaction to the hyped up news. The news people get more excited about the chance of snow so you never know what to believe. When the kids got home it was cold and misting but no biggie. By evening it was raining and it continued to rain for the next 24 hours and the tempeture continued to drop so we were having freezing rain. This could be bad. By Tuesday morning at 11 am a large tree branch had snapped off one of the big trees in our back yard. That's when i realized that this was going to get really bad.

It continued to rain (freezing rain) for the rest of the day. By 3:00 we had lost power. At 5pm we were all standing out in the cul-de-sak with our neighbors in the freezing rain listening to the explosion of trees all around us. We could hear it all around us. Lots of times we could see the branches falling. The craziest sounds were of the different transformers exploding. We all just were walking around in amazement as we watched the trees shower down. The tempetrue was suppose to drop during the night and at this rate I didn't think there would be any trees left by sunrise! Since the power was out this gave us a chance to put all of our 72 hour kits and emergency preparedness to the test. The main thing was that we had a gas fireplace and that kept the living room and kitchen pretty warm. We lit all of our candles and Mark roasted up some hot dogs and we were good to go. It took hadley a little while to understand that she couldn't watch a video. When she asked I would take her to the window and show her the big tree on the ground. She got it.
We spent the remainder of the evening/night playing games. Mark and I told the kids different stories from our childhood that we thought the boys may have never heard. It was an eerie feeling as we told these stories in our candle lit house as we listened to the trees snap and fall on or close us. And every now and then the sky would light up a weird green color when a transformer blew. The kids were asleep by the fire by about 9pm. I was anxious for morning to see what the storm would leave. I awoke around 5:30 when my neighbor texted me wanting to come over. I was so glad that they were coming over b/c they didn't have any heat. I offered earlier but they wanted to stay at their house. During the night part of the huge oak tree in front of their house had fallen and barely missed their house. So we were all up pretty early waiting for the sun to fully come up. Once it did we started surveying the area from inside our house. Branches were still falling so it was still pretty dangerous to venture out. Everyone hung out here for awhile as we gathered with other neighbors and started calling friends and family to see how everyone fared through the night. We had a few trees that are completly gone (look like toothpicks stuck out of the ground) and some other big branches fall out of trees but no damage to our house. Our yard and the woods behind us look like a war zone. I thought I had it bad until later in the morning we ventured out to the rest of Fayetteville and saw the major destruction. Many roads were completly impassable because of downed trees and power lines. We saw houses where the trees had fallen on power lines and completly ripped the power box right off their house. It was so sad to me to see parts of Fayetteville hardly reconizable any more becuase of the destruction.

Kristen (neighbor) called and had us meet them out at the indoor Razorback practice facility. So the boys had a blast playing football on the razorback field with eachother. Then we took the kids and stopped to get some lunch. Restaurants that had power were serving lunch and were pretty packed as we all gathered and started trading stories with fellow Fayetteville friends.

We were greeted with electricity by the time we reached home. Even after only about 24 hours I was so glad to have power restored! I feel super blessed because there are still thousands of people with out power and we are almost to Monday.

Friday and Saturday were spent going out and helping people out in West Fork clear a path from their house down their driveway. Saturday after Mark and Austin got back we cleared most of our yard up. Mark got pretty good at using a chain saw and now we have a gigantic pile out on the street next to our neighbors pile. Supposedly the city of Fayetteville is going to come and clear stuff away but I have a feeling that we are going to need to come up with another plan on removing all of our tree limbs.

We have been declared a National Disaster area. I was told that they rank national disaters on a scale of 1-5 (5 the worst) and they have put us at a 4. Crazy. I don't know exactly what that does for us to be a national disaster but I do know we don't have to make up the lost school days. Yea!

Testimony meeting at church was nice and uplifting today. People were very grateful for everything and there were many many stories of people being protected during this time.

We're Off!

2008-12-25T14:53:00.000-08:00

So..... we are on the road right now on our way to Florida for our family Disney Cruise. We are driving and the others are flying. I feel like it is a miracle for us to be on our way. Last week on Tuesday morning I slipped on the ice while dropping Chad off at school and thought I had broken my ankle. I was freaking out because I had so much to do to get ready for Christmas and numerous parties I was in charge of and a pack meeting to do for austin arrow of light and our trip that we he been planning for the last year. All of these things were racing through my head as I lay on the ice in a lot of pain. I thought if I could just get myself home everything would be ok. I was wrong. I could barely drive at all because of the intense pain in my ankle when I pushed on the gas. I got ahold of mark be mom and I waited in the car at home until theybcould get there to help me out. Dr. Sam cme over and liked at my ankle and he thought it was probably broken but did give me some hope that it could be a sprain. Before we went to the ER Mark gave me a blessing. After that I knew I was going to be ok. Sure enough the x-ray showed that it wasn't broken but a bad sprain. It still has been quite the recovery for me. Mom and my friends have been my angels taking care of me.my friend kristen who is a PT has come over numerous times to do therapy. That has really helped a lot. Mom totally was a huge help as she ran errands so I could get of the things done like pack meeting stuff and class parties. It has been challenging for me not to be able to get around like usual. I finally drove for the first time on Sunday. I still am swolen and sore but I'm hoping that a 2 day drive in the car will help.

One of my favorite things about the Christmas season is all the fun parties. Lastyesterday we harbour anual Christmas eve get together. This was the tradition that started when I was a kid and we would always go out to eat with Skeeles and Bednars (cause the moms didn't want to cook anymore) and then we would go see a movie all together. This tradition has evolved over the years and now we are such a big group it is almost harder to go out so yesterday a bunch of families met at moms house for lunch and then we all just hung out and played. It was very enjoyable.

Afterwards mark and I went to our house to get christmas stuff to bring back to moms house. We changed our mind to have. Hristmas morning at mom and dads house when we saw how sad the boys were. Austin came back with us and he said to us in the car, "it's nice when you feel like life can't get any better than this." I thought that was so sweet. He has had a lot of fun in the past few days hanging out with Uncle Kevin. I'm glad kevin is such a good example for Austin. I can't believe this is our last Christmas with him for 2 more years! Crazy.

We ended last night acting out the nativity and singing Christmas songs. I love doing that with everyone. The kids ESPECIALLY chad are so excited for morning. Chad is now 5 and we were did ussing how that has got to be the greatest age of all.

This morning was great. Everyone was happy with their gifts. Chad his "buggy" car (remote control car). Braden his spy gear car. Austin snorkel stuff and under armor jacket. Hadley got baby stuff. She loves her babies.

So back where I started. We're here in the car driving only about 4 hours into our 17-18 hour drive. Exciting!

2008-10-18T22:41:00.000-07:00

This was one of the few "down" days we had this summer. We woke up and it was raining so we spent the morning inside playing with Play-doh. By mid-morning the rain had cleared and the boys were busy making a robot out of a box that a kitchen set had come in for hadley. After completing the robot the boys walked around to some neighbors houses trying to play a prank on some friends or something.

Burch Family Visit

2008-10-18T19:41:00.000-07:00

Lake Day

2008-10-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

Swim-Bike-Run

2008-10-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

Happy Bithday 2 You!

2008-10-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

Hadley is growing up way too fast for me. I can hardly stand it. We had a fun little birthday party at nana's pool. Hadley had a great time swimming and being with her friends. She also loved eating all of the frosting off of her cake. Most of all she loved her girly presents.

I Heart the Lake

2008-06-22T01:53:00.000-07:00

Long Time No Blog....May Happenings

2008-06-22T01:34:00.001-07:00

So....I guess it has been over a month since i have blogged. What can i say life is busy- full of different events and friends and projects. I think that the longer days mixed with pool and lake time have taken away from blogging (not that I mind). I love to stay outside with the kids until it is dark and somewhere in there we find time for dinner. So when they are finally going to bed i spend a little time on some projects (more on that later) and then I am done. So tonight i decided that i was going to post some stuff and i just looked at the clock and i know why i don't stay up to do this. Lets just say that it is about midnight...in Hawaii.

Anyway- here are a few things that we did in the month of may. (I really do this for me so i can keep track of what i do. I find if i don't write things down or take a picture of it i may as well not have done it at all.)

The First Dress Up

2008-06-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness!! Can i tell you how much i love having a little girl??? I could cry. I never expected to feel so giddy when i saw hadley dressed up but i really thought it was one of the cutest things ever. She was playing with Julia and when i went to pick her up this was how she was dressed. Hadley gets to enjoy a whole new world of girl things at Julia's house since Julia is one of 4 girls. If Hadley wants to dress up at home she has to make do with cowboy and darth vader stuff. After seeing this I may have to get her a few girly things.

Happy Anniversary and First Day at AAA!

2008-05-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

today (yesterday actually) was our 12th anniversary. i can't believe we are at 12 already.....the time has gone by way too fast! we went out to ruth's chris (it is a new arrival to our litle neck of the woods). super yummy! then afterward we walked around in pinnacle and then we ended up going to a movie. we saw "made of honor". not one of my favorites.
Today was a big day too because it was mark's first day at AAA business systems!!!! Yea!!! friday it was official and we signed all of the papers. (i need to do a post of that whole experience) but, we are so so excited to finally be starting w/this chapter of life!

Nana and Grandad's House

2008-05-04T20:40:00.000-07:00

pictures from today at nana and grandad's house. becca and i were laughing so hard at hadley not wanting her picture taken. my favorite is when she carefully lays down on the ground as a show of protest. cute little mollie was more than happy for her photo shoot.

this was later.

Rockin' 80's Party

2008-05-02T11:36:00.000-07:00

this was Tom's b-day invitation, and yes, that really is him in front of the berlin wall. everyone really got their 80's groove on for the party and didn't hold back on the karaoke. i was suprised when mark drug me up on stage to sing "everytime you go away." the girls all sang together "girls just wanna have fun" and "material girl" allen and becca (not suprisingly) stole the show with their crowd pleaser "faith". and don't forget the band "bloody finger". the whole party was a totally awesome radical smash hit! The "Bloody Finger" band was a hit!

when i was getting ready at home chad kept saying, "mom, you don't look like my mom!"

Lessons Learned

2008-05-01T12:32:00.000-07:00

so....i woke up sunday morning all excited about making a poundcake for my sunday school class. i had already started making it when i heard mark say, "don't forget it's fast sunday!" I was like- (in my head) "what!?!! but i'm making poundcake....maybe i should stop since it is fast sunday?? no, i'll keep going, i'll just cut them (the class) a big slice and put it in a ziplock with a note that says, "don't eat until after church". The thought kept coming back that i shouldn't make the poundcake for them. I could stop and just throw away the cream cheese and only be out like $2. but i kept going despite my thoughts to quit. i even had thoughts go through my head wondering if the Lord could mess up the pound cake if He really didn't want me to make the pound cake. no i thought to myself, that couldn't happen, i am going to follow the recipie exactly, plus i have made this 100 times. anyway....i put the perfectly made pound cake in the oven at the right temp. and for less time than the recipie calls for. about 30 minutes later i started smelling a funny smell. i go to the oven double check the temp. and time everything was right and then i opened up the oven to a puff of black smoke and a blackened pound cake. my jaw dropped open as i realized that the Lord was telling me that i should always follow the spirit. the blackend poundcake did make a great object lesson for class. unfortunately...this lesson cost us $152.98 to get the oven fixed on monday.

Safari in Arkansas

2008-04-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

we had too much fun on our trip to the safari out in gentry this last week. the best part was getting to play with our new monkey friend, kiwi. she was the cutest thing ever! hadley loved seeing all of the "cows" that is what she called everything on four legs.

2008-04-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

ok so i have said for a long time now that i want to travel around on the back roads of the south and take pictures of old barns. i love old barns i think they are so simple and rusticly pretty and they make me think of a simpler time when families just worked together to survive. nobody builds real wooden barns anymore they are always the cheap meatal buildings.
anyway...i was driving home the other day and i passed a field that i seriously have passed thousands of times before and back behind the fence i saw a beautiful old barn. i decided that i should start taking pictures of the barns right next door to me. all of these different barns are within a 5 minute walk from my house! i just have never taken the time to really notice them. my favorite one is the red barn in the big green field. i went out on wednesday evening b/c there was a big storm brewing and i knew the lighting would be great. hadley waited in the car while i took the pictures with lightening all around me. i kept thinking that it probably wasn't the smartest thing to walk around with a metal tri-pod with lightening striking all around. oh-well. i had a lot of fun doing it.

Life Changing

2008-04-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

why, why, why has it taken me my whole life (at least it feels that way) to figure out the laundry and the laundry room?? ell...i think i finally did with the help of mark. we started using bins for everyone and added another laundry basket/sorter in the laundry room. then i made myself a wrapping paper station using pegboard. i love it! it has been a little over a week and i can't believe the difference in the whole house. now whenever i find junk of the kids i throw it in their bin. how does that work? something like this:
kid: "mom can i go bla bla bla???"
me: "check your bin, is it empty?."

now, as weird as it sounds, i love to do laundry. i always loved it because of the smell but hated pretty much everything else about it. the folding and putting away and it taking my whole life. blargh! now it is simple--a little batch here a little batch there. done. even mark likes to do laundry now. this has been life changing.

go comets!

2008-04-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

braden had a soccer tournament this weekend. we all went out to the fields to watch the games and enjoy the beautiful weather.
later tonight we were getting dressed in out church clothes (a little out of the ordinary since it was saturday) to go to the Springdale Stake dedication.
chad- "what are we going to do after we go to church?"
mark-"if you're good maybe we'll go get something to eat."
chad-"but....we're going to come home and change our clothes right??? because we don't want to look like church people."

2008-04-18T21:49:00.000-07:00

so....i decided last night that i want to get better at photography. i keep saying to myself that i'm going to do it sometime but now is the time. who better to practice on??? my sweet bff hadley of course. i only shot today in the av mode. these were a few of my favs. i don't know if i'm getting better but we sure had fun playing outside.

i heart little girls in high heels....

2008-04-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

when i went to get hadley up this morning her hair looked like it was on fire, the way it was sticking straight up everywhere. she is addicted to her blankets and bottle she has to have both right after she gets out of her crib. i love to sit and hold her as she drinks her bottle in the morning (yes i know she is too old for the bottle but it works for now...)
hadley loves to put her high heels on and walk everywhere especially outside pushing a stroller. i personally can't think of anything less desirable to do but she loves it, and even though i wouldn't do it i love to watch her walking around in her pink high heels.

"mom i can't hold on!" chad

2008-04-15T20:52:00.000-07:00

so....we had so much flying kites on saturday i decided to do it again. a bunch of us moms met at the park ready for another perfect day of kite flying. it really was quite crazy all of the tangled string and kite tails and a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds wanting it to be "their turn".
chad got his kite in the air--he had all of the string let out and the kite was f-lying so high! but....if the kite was a little bigger or chad was a little smaller, chad would have flown away. chad started yelling, "mom i can't hold on!!!" he let go and we both chased after the kite only to have the spool get caught in the tree. the kite however kept on flying high for the rest of the day.

i heart dogwood trees

2008-04-13T20:11:00.000-07:00

april is one of my favorite times of year because of the beautiful spring we get here in arkansas and all of the beautiful dogwood trees that lace the forest. the dogwood has always been a special tree to me because when i see the trees i think of the legend i learned as a kid. today i had to go out and take some pictures of the dogwood trees in our backyard.

the legend....

at the time of Crucifixion the dogwood had been the size of the oak and other forest trees. so firm and strong was the tree that it was chosen as the timber for the cross. to be used thus for such a crul purpose greatly distressed the tree, and Jesus nailed upon it, sensed this. in His gengle pity for all sorrow and suffering Jesus said to the tree: "because of your regret and pity for My suffering, never, again shall the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. henceforth it shall be slender and bent and twisted and its blossoms shall be in the form of a cross--two long and two short petals. and in the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns and all who see it will remember."

"my kite is happy!" chad

2008-04-12T19:21:00.000-07:00

on the way home after sitting at the soccer fields and freezing my tail off because of the constant strong wind, i decided that it was going to be a perfect kite day. i was right. we had so much fun flying the kites. there was a steady strong wind and we had no problem at all getting our kites up. we ended up flying our kites for over 2 hours- what a perfect way to spend the afternoon with my kiddos.

Hadley & Mollie

2008-04-10T20:44:00.000-07:00

Nana made matching Easter dresses for Hadley & Mollie so we wanted to get their pictures taken together. Everything started out well but.....then it pretty much ended with crying (look at last picture). April 3, 08

"Hump it UP...No, I mean Pump it Up." Chad

2008-04-09T19:58:00.000-07:00

Pump it up is Chad & Hadley's favorite place in the world and we make the trek up to Bentonville once a week to go.
The first time that we visited Chad kept thanking me over and over for taking him to "trump it up". I finally corrected him and told him that it's not trump it up it's Pump it Up. The next thing I know he is saying, "Thank you mommy for taking me to Hump it Up." I tried correcting him again but no luck. The next Sunday I was told by some friends that when he got up to say the prayer in Primary at church he said, "Thank you Heavenly Father that we could go to Hump it Up."

Now Chad knows the correct way to say the name of his favorite place. On the way home and every day Chad now asks me, "Mommy, how many more sleeps until we can go to Pump it Up?"

Chad & Julia about to go down the slide.

Chad & his bestfriend Elisa.

Hadley going down the slide all by herself.

Adriane & baby Olivia.

Me and Hadley trying to take a self portrait.

Peek-a-boo- a favorite game of Hadley's.

Hadley & Julia jumping.

A trip to "Sognic" with grilled cheese caps off a fun morning. It's America's Drive In.

This picture needs a Sonic stamp across it like in the commercials. That's what it looks like to me.

Elisa in her car next to us at Sonic

I love Spring in Arkansas

2008-04-08T20:34:00.000-07:00

High Bank Twins Falls- March 29, 2008

We had so much fun on Saturday on our hike up to high Bank Twin Falls. We have had a bunch of rain this spring so much that there has been some flooding around us. The good thing about all of the rain is that it eans good waterfalls. Our family along with Allen & Becca's family ad the Harvey kids drove out a ways on the Pig Trail (yes that is the real nae of the road) to a place in the Ozark Nationa Forest. Driving on the Pig Trail is one of my favorite drives (it used to make me super sick as a kid with all of the hair pin turns) it is especially pretty this time of year with all of the beautiful dogwood trees in bloom.

This is a perfect waterfall to go to with kids because it is only.5 miles round trip. We barely started hiking before we reached the waterfall. The best part about seeing a waterfall is the pool of water below the waterfall perfect for throwing rocks into. In Arkansas there are always plenty of rocks. So we stayed for a good amount of time so the kids could throw rocks and climb around on the boulders.

Start of New Blog

2008-04-06T21:29:00.000-07:00

Well, for the last two months I have been saying that I am not going to do a blog because I don't want to have one more thing that I don't have time to do. But... after much persistance from friends and family who want to see my blog (which I just don't quite understand) I have decided to get with the program and start a blog.

Pictures and Funny Sayings. Those are the two main things that I will be posting on my blog. So.... let's begin.

Latest family picture taken in Dec. 07. I think getting family pictures done is one of my very least favorite things to do. When it is done I'm glad but the process is pa-retty painful.

Austin (10 yrs.) loves: football, basketball, Payton Manning, sports in general, reading, Myth Busters, playing with his brothers, science, babysitting (on certain occasions), checking his e-mail, and reading Aunt Becca's Blog

Braden (8 yrs) loves: to play soccer (when he has no broken bones), loves fishing and can't stop talking about it, reading (esp. Harry Potter, just finished 7th one), jumping on the trampoline, playing with friends and brothers, Funkey's, Myth Butsters, GT,
Chad (4 yrs.) loves: to be doing anything that his older brothers are doing, sports, fishing, Funkey's, jumping on the trampoline, going to PUMP IT UP, Eliza, pre-school, Sponge Bob, snacks, snacks, and snacks.

Hadley (20 months) loves: to be where Mommy, Mom, or Mama is, her brothers, jumping on the trampoline, holding her baby, bottles, dressing up, shoes, her blankies, candy, cheese, Missy (our dog), playing outside, going in the car, learning new words, trying to say her prayers.

Austin's Spot

2008-04-05T21:27:00.000-07:00

Braden's Spot

2008-04-04T21:28:00.000-07:00

Chad's Spot

2008-04-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

Hadley's Spot

2008-04-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Nana's Dresses

2008-04-01T21:41:00.000-07:00

Nana's Dresses

Hadley & I are spoiled to have our very own private seamstress-my mom or Nana. The brown is one of my favorite with the tu-tu cute pink tule underneath. These pictures were taken right after church. As soon as Hadley got out of the car she ran and got her ATV and went out in the street. I thought she looked so cute doing something so rugged in her cute little dress. I can't stand how cute her chubby little legs look.

The yellow dress was Hadley's Easter dress. The big pink sash is my favorite! When Hadley puts this dress on she likes to spin around.

2007 Scrapbook

2008-04-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

These are scrapbook pages that are in order starting in Aug. 07 - Jan. 07

Favorite Chad Sayings

2008-04-01T13:43:00.000-07:00

(On an airplane) "I'ts going to be hard to do "Cruiser Bruiser" since we are so high in the air."
On Easter Sunday seeing the baked ham on the stove, "Mom, is that the Easter Bunny??!" april 2008
"I thought the Statue of Liberty was a human and a boy."
"Is Moroni taller than Yoda?"
(Said to dad While watching TV) "Is he a Dad?" "Yes." "But he doesn't have a big head like you!"
Chad would ask me or Mark a question and then we would answer and he would say, "Yea. That's right!" age 3.
"We have a lot of pictures that we took pictures of."
While Mark was on a ladder putting up the Christmas lights outside, Chad said, "Dad, if you fell off the ladder, it would be cool if Superman came and caught you before you hit the ground." Dec. 07
Chad overheard Mark telling Austin something that he did when he was in high school. Chad then asked, "How old do you have to be o go to High School Musical?" Mark wish he would have said, "You have to be a 13 yr. old girl."
On Sunday Chad gavegave a talk in Church. He did not want to do it, so we told him it was show and tell. He had to tell everyone what he was thankful for. We brought several items to show. He chose all the items (picture of his friend, family picture, statue of liberty ornament, etc), except the picture of Jesus. As I was talking to him, asking why he didn’t want to take the Jesus picture (which he ended up taking), I told him that we go to church so that we can learn to be like Jesus. Without missing a beat Chad said, “But Jesus has long hair.”
This week Chad came up to me and stuck his hand out in front of him and started singing, “Stop, in the name of love” That is as far as he got. Apparently he learned that from one of his babysitters.
"I wish trees were a different color... like red."
A couple of days ago the missionaries were over for dinner. They were sharing a message with us; they told the story of Ammon cutting of the arms of the lamanites. Chad wasn’t paying attention so we told him how the swords were like his light sabers. The other missionary talked about Moroni. The next day Chad said to me, “Remember when Moroni was like Yoda?” and “Is Moroni taller than Yoda.”
"When I get big, I want you to buy me a dangerous gun."
"When I am a Daddy, I want a Lightning McQueen fishing pole with a hook." (Chad hasn't been allowed to use hooks on his fishing pole for obvious reasons.)
Chad has also recently said, “When I am a Daddy I don’t want to live in a house with kids.” And “When I am a Daddy, I want to sleep with my blanket.” One of my personal favorites, “If I get squished by a car or a subway, will Jesus fix me?” When asked if he wanted to live with Heavenly Father someday, he said “No, I want to live with Mom.”
"Mom, I accidently kicked Braden in the head on purpose." 10-17-08
"Mom, is it ok if I take my band-aid off....cause I already did." 10-17-08
"Hey Mom! I won a Muffet!" 10-10-08 after winning a puppet