Mostly just pictures

 

I just thought these pictures of the girls were so cute so I wanted to post them.  Hailey is starting to get a lot bigger and I'm sure it won't be long before these two crazy girls will be sharing a room and chasing each other around giggling.  But for now we are still keeping Hailey safe in mommy and daddy's room ;)

The rest of the pictures are from our big winter storm that we got.  Callie was so excited to see some snow, the first thing she asked me when she woke up is: "Is it Christmas again?"

The last picture is of Hailey in one of the dresses that Callie wore when she was a baby.  It has been so nice to use all of her clothes again.

 

Our very own cookie monster...

I emailed Brad this morning at work and said: "Please tell me that half of the oreos in the container were already gone."

I woke up this morning to Callie by my bed with her mouth covered with chocolate. (She usually comes to me first thing when she first wakes up, evidently she had made a side stop this morning.) 
I said: "Callie have you been eating in the kitchen?"   She said: "Ummm... No." 
So then I said "Callie, did you eat a doughnut or a cookie?"
Again she says "Nooo..... I ate juice"  Then I look at her and said: "Callie, you have chocolate all of your mouth, tell me what you ate."
She says: "Yes, I ate chocolate!"
I go into the kitchen and there was a chair pushed up to the cabinet and the oreo cookie package was open with half of them gone (Hopefully Brad got hungry last night and ate 1/4 of the package.  Hopefully, she really didn't eat like 20! Ha ha... crazy girl.)
Then I told her, "Callie, your not supposed to get in the cookies while mommy is sleeping."  And she says, "I shut your door!"  What a little turkey, she must have gone and shut my door so that I wouldn't hear her.

First words

Hailey started saying her first words this weekend.  I can't believe it, since she is only 5 1/2 months old!  She actually started saying Momma first on Friday but she was kinda of running her words together like: momma ma ma ma.  So I wasn't going to count it as her first word.  But then Saturday she started saying "Dadda". And she said it all day long and has still been saying it since.  She definately says "Dadda" clearly.  So I'll probably count that as her first word.
  Even though she's saying the words, she doesn't actually know what they mean, she's just saying them.  Either way, I'm so excited.  It's so fun to hear babies when they first start babbling.  I was telling a few people that she was saying "Dadda", and I think they probably thought I was crazy since she was so little, but right after I was telling them, she started saying it.  She showed off for Grandpa, Grandma, Aunt Mary, the missionaries, and of course all of our family.  I tried to record it for my blog, but of course she wouldn't do it when I wanted her too.  So I'll keep trying.

Last weekend Kayla got to go to our old town that we lived in to stay the weekend with her good friend Nash.  It was Nash's birthday and you can always count on her family to throw a good party.  They rented a cabin and had 10 girls stay the night in a warm and cozy cabin where they did facials, sang karaoke, played games and went hiking.  I can just imagine how much Kayla was eating all of that up.

Brad and I also got to go out on a date night on Friday night.  We went to the "Big Buck Classic".  Bet you can't guess who planned that date night, can you?  They had a big arena full of deer, guns, tools, cars, four wheelers, food vendors, and lot's of other crazy things.  I actually ended up really enjoying myself and I even got to check out the women's competition that I'm going to be facing next year when I get my buck.  Ha ha ha.. they better watch out.

There was even a "Rattlesnake Handler" there. 

(I like the sign in the background that said: "Buck deer come to scent, not a $1,000 bow")  I think I'll remind Brad of that next time we make a big bow purchase;)

Oh the joys of motherhood...

While Brad was out of town last week on a business trip to Tampa, Florida, I got to stay home with sick kids ;)  On some days, he would call me and hold his phone out his hotel window so that I could hear the ocean waves. 
Ha ha... I just realized that I should have held up my phone so he could hear a child puking in my background.  No just  kidding.  But really, how unfair is that?   I was so jealous!  I'm glad that he had a good time though, and we are all happy he is back with us.
Callie is the one who was sick.  She had a cold since we left Wyoming and then last week she started throwing up, so I decided to take her to the doctor only to be told that she had an ear infection!  Good grief.  She is doing much better now though.  Now Hailey has a cold this week that she must have caught from big sister.  I'm not surprised though.  If you see how Callie hugs and malls her baby sister you would be more surprised if she didn't get sick than if she did.  I've had several strangers ask me if Callie is jealous of her baby sister or how she feels now that the baby has taken her limelight.  This just makes me laugh, because Callie is not jealous of Hailey in the least bit, as a matter of fact, I can hardly contain her when she's around the baby.  She sweet talks her, and tries to tickle her, and kiss all over her face. Well.... I guess you guys have seen some the videos so you know what I'm talking about.  Anyway, there is no stealing of the limelight either.  Callie just sings louder, talks louder, and does everything louder to still get all the limelight she needs ;)

One cute thing that I wanted to share that I overheard while I was in the laundry room tonight was a conversation between Kayla and Callie. It went something like this:
Kayla: "Callie, will you go get me a juice box out of the fridge?  I'll give you a surprise if you do!"
Callie: "Okay!" (with excitement for her surprise, she brings Kayla the juice). 
Callie: "What's my surprise Kayla?"
Kayla: "It's a great big kiss!" Kayla then leans over and plants a big kiss on her forehead. (I'm thinking, oh great now she's going to start crying because it wasn't a cookie or something.)
  Callie: "YES!" (She starts dancing around because she liked her surprise, then she quickly runs back to the fridge to get Kayla ANOTHER box of juice), then she says: "Now, kiss me again Kayla!"

I don't know why I just thought that was so cute.  First of all, I used to hate it when my mom would tell me I was going to get a surprise and then she would say that my surprise was a kiss, or a hug, or a thank you.  I always thought.  What a rip off, I did all that for nothing!  But my sweet little Callie was going to keep running and getting Kayla more juices all night, if her big sister would keep kissing her for it.   

Ha ha ha.. so that's what happened!

I just had to repost this on my blog because it is so funny.  (I stole this off my friend Janae Thompson's blog. )  But first a little background information.  During Sacrament at church yesterday I noticed a few giggles going around.  It wasn't until I took some of the bread that I realized why.  I must have grabbed the biggest piece in there, and well, let's just say as a picked it up, it felt pretty hard.  No biggy I thought, as I put it in my mouth and began to chew.  Ha ha ha..  It was so hard I could hardly even chew it!  I was trying with all my might not to bust up laughing as I crunched, crunched, crunched.  I was thinking "What in the world could have made the bread so hard? Did they toast it?"  LOL!  I mentioned something to Brad about it after church and he said "I know, I couldn't look at you because I knew we would start laughing."  Well I woke up this morning to read my friend Janae's blog to have the mystery revealed.  Read  it for yourself, it's pretty funny: 

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Crouton's for Sacrament

First of all.. We sit in the back two rows in our branch so I have a good view of everyone. Ok, so today as the Sacrament is being passed I noticed Jordan and Jack Bowen, the two Deacons passing, trying not to giggle the whole time, I also notice that people had funny faces as they were partaking of the Sacrament. I didn't think too much of it, just thought it was odd, well as it gets to Zachary and Alex, which is the row in front of where I was, Zachary busts up laughing and Alex turns beat red! Todd goes to grab for them and I start to say something just as the bread reaches me and I put it in my mouth and CRUNCH on it! Quite loud! In fact Jack said I was the loudest Crunch in the whole branch, probably because my mouth was open because I was about to shush my boys! The bread was CRUNCHY Dry! Not a little bit, but Croûton Crunchy. I looked over at Alex and he is the only Teacher who prepares the bread and said "What is up with the bread"? He said "I don't know it was soft when I put it out"!

Well during church it was a topic of conversation a few times and I told a few people how it was soft when he put it out and we couldn't figure it out though we were all starting to speculate on what could make us eat crouton type bread. It was great conversation today.

Well the best part of all was the drive home when Todd asked Alex what was up with the bread. This was Alex's exact words and I have to write it before I forget.. "Well I went to get the 4 pieces out of the fridge like usual and someone had put them in the freezer and I looked and there was no toaster so It was an emergency situation so I had to microwave them"! Todd and I trying not to bust up and feeling really glad there was no toaster as that would have been worse ask.. How long did you microwave the bread? Alex says "Only 3 minutes and it burned my hand even when I took it out it was all doughy even I was worried they wouldn't be able to break the bread"!

LOL!!! So we are sorry for those of you that ate the "croutons" at the branch today, but at least you can be grateful that there is no toaster in the kitchen at church! Or maybe that would have been better! LOL.. Either way, it was all innocent and made life interesting today to say the least!

Haiti

I'm sure all of you have heard about the devastating earthquake in Haiti that happened Tuesday. Like most of you, my heart hurts after I hear about catastrophes like this, but many times I feel like there is not a lot that I can do to help. But I have come to the conclusion that every little bit helps and even if you don't have a lot to donate, doing something is better than nothing. So for those of you that might be interested, I have posted two easy and inexpensive ways to give.

The Red Cross offers an option to donate $10 by sending a simple text message. Just Text ‘Haiti’ to 90999 to donate $10. You can check out more details on this donation here. (Basically, the $10.00 will be added to your next phone bill, and will be donated to the Red Cross.)

Or if you are interested in donating another amount, you can do so through The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That link can be found here.

Even if you don't have any extra to donate right now, I know that we can all keeps those that were affected in our prayers. I truly believe that through the strength of prayer that many can be helped and comforted.

I wish I had enough energy to do this all day...

Growing up so fast

Yes, this really is how we entertain ourselves...

Brad told me I better not put this on the blog, because we look like dorks, but he should know better, because I put everything on my blog ;) Hailey is just to darn cute not to.
(And in case your wondering, Kayla had to record it hiding behind the door or Hailey wouldn't laugh, every time she saw the camera she would just stare at it instead. So that's why the door is in the way).

Sledding and "Ice scraping"

Okay this will be my final post about Wyoming (I wasn't lying when I said I had taken a lot of pictures).  Our girls loved being able to play in all the snow while we were on vacation.  The girls both got to go "ice scraping" as Callie calls it. However, I didn't go, so unfortunaltely I didn't get any pictures.  Brad said that Callie was a natural little ice skater and that she had excellent balance.

Later on in the week we were able to meet up with my good friends David and Jennifer and their three kids. Our family and my brothers family all decided to go sledding. The kids had so much fun.  And well I did too, I even went for a little ride on the sled being pulled by David on his four wheeler.  He promised he wouldn't be crazy and he wasn't. (I think that he is the fist guy that has ever promised to drive nice and actually followed through ;)

 

We even built a fire for everyone to stay warm.  And we roasted hot dogs too.

Callie loving the snow.  Do you think she needs a hair cut?

Jenna playing with the dog.

Jennifer's boys Ethan and Taylor.  I can't believe how big they've gotten. (You better steal this pic from my blog Jen because it's a cute one.)

Kayla getting ready to go for a spin on the tube.

Mark pulling around Jay and Callie. (Don't worry grandma's we didn't pull the little ones with the four wheeler.)

Mark , Shayla and Seth by the fire.  Shayla cooked up some mean chili.

Jennifer with her girl Jenna.

She looked like a little snow bunny.

Me and Jen

Ethan gave Callie lot's of rides.  He is so sweet.

Horse riding and Mayes Family Pictures

My parents have a horse at their house that Callie loved to go out and see. Uncle Seth and Brad were nice enough to let her have a ride. This is probably one of the mildest horses I've ever seen. Callie wasn't scared at all because it was so friendly.

Also, one night while we were there my parents and brother hosted a prime rib dinner over at Mark's new house. All the food was so yummy. At the end of the night we got some much needed family pictures taken. With the exception of my wedding picture, the last time we had one taken with all of us there was when I was about 14. We actually had a family friend come and take them, but before he got there I took a few of these just with my camera. I'm sure his are a lot better, and also I don't have one that has everyone in it, so when I get that copy I'll post it.

Here's one of just our family. Callie is so crazy!

My parents with all their grandkids. Don't they look good?

All the grandchildren. Callie (mine), Sam (my older brother Mark's), Kayla (mine), Hailey (mine), Decklan (My next youngest brother Deloy's), and Jay (Mark's oldest).

My brothers and sister. I'm going to guess on their ages (I might be off by a year)

Back row: Deloy (24), Mark (28), McKay (15), Don (19)

Front row: Me (27), Seth (22), Karren (21)

I love my family!

Anniversary in Wyoming

The Monday that we were in Wyoming Brad and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary.  Brad had been wanting to go to the Cody museum for sometime, so we decided to enlist the help of my mom and sister to watch Kayla and Callie while we went.  But before we went to the museum we met my brother and sister in law at a restaurant called "The Irma" that used to be the hotel where Buffalo Bill stayed.  It has a really cool atmosphere and delicious food.  To top it all off my brother bought our lunch for our Anniversary.  Thanks Mark and Shayla!

This is a picture of the bar at the restaurant, it is so beautiful and huge!  Brad and I were talking about how some people have a misconception that anybody from Wyoming is a cowboy or something.  There are plenty of "real" cowboys in Wyoming (you know, with the full get up of shaps, spurs, hats and fringes ;), but most people are not.  However if you would like to see some "real" cowboys go to Cody, Wyoming.  They are certainly not in short supply.  We saw several while we were eating at the Irma.

After we ate at the Irma, Brad and I headed over to the museum with Hailey.  This was one of my favorite days in Wyoming, because it was so nice to spend several hours alone with Brad (well almost alone), but Hailey was really good.  Brad loved it because this museum is world famous and has on display over 2,900 guns.  Here is a picture of Brad by a machine gun/ cannon.

Brad checking out the guns.  And yes, he did look at them one, by one, by one ;)

This bottom gun was pretty cool becaus it was longer than my body.  I don't know how they carried it without tipping over, it must have required two people.

Checking out the Boone and Crockett display.

This was my favorite gun.  It was a combination of  brass knuckles, gun, and dagger.  Now that's what I need in my purse for my late night shopping trips for protection!

Standing by some life sized tipi's.

The Indian museum was probably my favorite.  It was so beautiful.

On our way to Wyoming

I did warn everyone that I have a lot to blog about, so I'm going to just start my way at the beginning of our trip and work my way through.  We left for Wyoming Christmas day, and I'm not going to lie, the first day was a long one.  Basically what was supposed to have been an 8 hour drive to Amarillo, TX (where we were staying the night) turned into a 12 hour drive because of the horrible roads in Oklahama.  Although I cannot complain.  The girls were all EXCELLENT, especially considering we were only going 30 mph on the interstate :)  But once we made it through that rough patch it was smooth sailing from then on out.  I just had to take some pictures of the tight quarters we were in.

It was also a little bit difficult to find a place to eat on Christmas day, so when we saw the beautiful lights of Waffle house glowing in the night, we decided that was the place for our Christmas dinner!  Let's just say Callie was a little energetic after being trapped in the truck all day.  Brad just let her be crazy for a minute, just to get out some energy.  Ha ha.. this picture pretty much sums it up.

The very best Christmas present that we bought for the girls were double screened dvd players.  They worked quite well for Kayla and Callie on the trip.  However, after Hailey started fussing a little, I got the bright idea to take the screen off the headrest and put it in front of her so she could watch a little Dora.  She loved it.

We got to Wyoming the next night at about 11:30 at night.  And Grandpa and Grandma Mayes and the whole family were waiting up for us.  And over the next week we got to spend a lot of time catching up with everyone.  I needed to see my family so much because I was beyond homesick, and it really just made me feel so much better to be with all of them again. 

Papa got to meet his new grand baby.

My nephew Jay finally learned that I'm not Aunt Karren but Aunt Nina, in fact I think he actually prefers me now.  Ha ha... just kidding Karren.

I also couldn't believe how tall my baby brother had gotten.  McKay was taller than me!

We also were finally able to see my older brother Mark's house now that it is finished.  And I got to meet my nephew Sam who is almost a year now!  He's such a cutie.

This is my other nephew Decklan.  He loved chasing Callie around.

I also got to see my brother Seth who I hadn't seen in almost 3 years, because he recently returned from a mission.

I loved spending lots of time with my "skinny, good lookin momma."

The girls also got to meet Grandpa and Grandma's newest puppies Charlie and Lola.  They loved playing with them, because mean old me won't let them get a dog.  Kayla also got to spend some time with her cousin Amber.