First Grade

I can't believe my baby girl is in FIRST GRADE! It seems like yesterday I was blessed to welcome her to our family! Haley is growing up so fast and couldn't wait to go to school full time. Her Mom and Dad on the other hand would like to keep her young for just a while longer! She is such a sweetheart and a HUGE help around the house, she was missed greatly by her brothers all day. Harmon really wanted her home, he is usually the first to give her hugs each morning and Hunter was just plain bored without her! He even played Barbie with her after school just so he could be with her!

She is so excited to learn and be with her friends. She lucked out to have one of her best friends Sophia in her class so life is good for her. She survived her first day with minimal problems. When I picked her up I asked her how her day was and she just burst into tears. The big upset of the day was that she didn't get to finish her jello that was in her lunch box. Man was she upset! After that she got upset about everything she could think of for about an hour, I admit I wanted to send her back :) After a little quiet time I got my Haley back. She tires easily because of her Thyroid condition and this all day school thing may be a rough adjustment, but she's so easy going that she'll be just fine! We love our Bubbas and are all excited to keep seeing her grow up (just hopefully not to fast!)

Emmy, Haley, Sophia, and Tori

The Big "ONE"

I Can't believe my baby is 1!!! What a joy this little guy has been to our family! It was a total surprise when we found out he was coming, but our family wouldn't be complete without him. He has everyone wrapped around his little finger. I mean really--how can you resist those beautiful blue eyes and chubby cheeks! I had to post a few pictures from the last year, then on to the PARTY!

10 months old

Beautiful Newborn

Hayden has ALWAYS loved the tub!

Christmas

I love seeing him grow and learn, but oh how I miss this little guy!

Present TIME!

A favorite gift from his big sister Haley (it was a hit with all the kids), it's bigger than him!

Hayden LOVES the water so we had to swim for his big day!

Before . . . . After . . . One VERY HAPPY BOY!

Hayden is such a character and we can tell already that he is going to keep us laughing a LOT! He loves to play games and smiles very easily. When he's mad, he's mad and becomes a major MaMa's boy. The happy times definitely outweigh the ornery times though. Oh how we love this little guy!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAYDEN!!

Conversations

So Haley and I had an interesting conversation on a "pretend" phone yesterday. Here's how it went . . .

Alleen "Hi Haley what are you doing?"
Haley "I'm playing with my kids."
"Oh yeah, how many kids do you have?"
"10"
"Man, how do you deal with that many kids?"
"I just clean All day long!"
"What about your Husband, what does he do?"
"He sleeps all day"
"Does he have a job"
"No, he just sleeps all the time"
At this point Michael joined in and said that Haley's husband HAD to have a job.
She replies "OK, he works at Sonic"
"Really, so do you get free slushes?"
"Yeah, just a small Cherry slush--with 10 straws, then all the kids fight over the cherry."

She then went on to let us know that she's a Doctor, but isn't able to work because of her 10 kids and her sleeping husband. I guess his shifts at Sonic are pretty tiring. Needless to say we were laughing hysterically at this conversation!

Summer Sightings

With school just getting out last week, I feel like we are trying to cram Summer into 3 weeks. My goal was to do something fun with the kids everyday even if it's just for an hour, but we've all been passing around a miserable cold. You know the kind that feels like you're head is going to explode and every bit of energy gets drained from your body--yep that's been our house, so we've just stayed in quite a bit. Today the drugs kicked in and I felt like I saw some glimpses of how summer should be. Rainy/Sunny days--I LOVE a good summer rain!
Hayden naked and sneaking out the door every chance he gets

I'm not sure what this face was about, but he was having fun! Hunter is such a little fish!

Haley sees a camera and can't help but pose. The problem is she looks like she's on a red carpet and showing off the back of her dress. What's that all about?!?!?

Goofy Harm! He was last to catch the bug in our house and I feel awful for him when he's not feeling well, but it was so fun to cuddle with him and have a calm kid for a couple days. He definitely keeps us on our toes!

Graduation

My baby girl graduated from Kindergarten yesterday. It's hard for me to even type this because I want to cry. I'm not sure I'm ready for her to grow up! Her program was so cute, full of music and dancing. At the end they all held up pictures to the song "Wonderful World." It was really cute and her teacher worked so hard to put it together! Haley has learned so much this year and really grown up. I'm not sure I love everything she has learned from her classmates, but I guess I can't shelter her forever. So I'll let her head off to 1st grade in 3 weeks and try not to cry then to ;) "Wonderful World"

Being shy for the camera, but she loved being on stage. Here we are having treats in the classroom after the program.
I got a special tile for helping in the classroom. I was able to go into the class every Friday throughout the year and had fun working with the kids on sightwords.

Hunter came along to the ceremony and to cheer his big sister on. I hope they are always as close as they are now!

Here's some of Haley's buddies. Haley, Maddie, Sophia, and Emmy

Haley and her Proud Dad!

Haley and her boy Grant. They car pooled together and sat by each other. He's such a cute kid, he doesn't even mind coming over to play girly things with Haley.

Haley and Mrs. Helseth
She was a great teacher and loved all of her students. Haley excelled at reading and writing and if I can brag for a minute--I was told that she is reading at a 3rd grade level. I couldn't believe it! I give credit to her good teacher and to Haley for working so hard. She loves school and learning! Here we come 1st Grade ***sniff sniff***

The Big Race

Here we are at the big Pioneer Day race. We had a blast running together, laughing, and talking. I can honestly say that I really enjoyed it! It's something that I'd like to repeat I think. I had an okay time, but want to do better. I guess it's a goal for next year. The theme for the race was "Run for your Life" I didn't think that was a funny theme until I saw the pictures on the shirts. It's a Bull chasing a guy and he's literally running for his life : ) Thanks to the Henrie Girls for a Fun Run!

Go Sox!!!

Oh how I wish we were Angels fans. I love going to the ball park . . . the fun atmosphere, the food, and the game itself. But of course we are fans of a team that is clear across the country. So we show up to Angel Stadium in all our Red Sox glory just to find there are as many Red Sox fans as Angel fans.
The game was great it kept us involved and excited to see what would happen next and everyone enjoyed it except for maybe Hunter. Poor kid wasn't feeling well and really got miserably sick towards the end. I felt so bad for him! He was a trooper though and stuck it out sitting in the hot sun. We picked a day game and a hot one at that. Everyone got a little sunburn, but it was worth it to see our Red Sox beat the Angels. The ending score was 7-3 which included I think 3 home runs and a Grand Slam. Can't wait until they play again next year, we'll definitely be back!

We walked around down by the field before the game, the kids liked being that close to where the action takes place.

We're soaking in the shade before we find our seats.

Dad and Haley

Harm was dancing--he loves to shake it!

Tim Wakefield warming up--he never made it in the game though

Poor Hunter during his miserable stage! His ear was hurting and he just felt awful. Looking back we feel so bad we made him stay for the game, he was not having a great time.

Silly face :)

The Final Score :) Go Red Sox!

The Beach

We had a few hours to spend playing in the sand and water at Ocean Beach. We aren't the best sand castle builders, but it was sure fun trying. I had more fun burying Haley in the sand. The water was a little cool, but not to bad once you got in for a minute. After being there for a while we decided to go rent some boards and surprisingly I had a blast on the boogie board. It was the first time I had done it and I was determined to catch a good wave. Michael kept laughing at me when he tried to get me back to the beach, I just couldn't stop. I think I need another trip to just go and lay on the beach with a good book oh and yeah a boogie board :)

These two were wimps when it came to the cold, but they liked the sand

I just thought this was to cute!

He did smile a few times :)

She was still finding sand the next day, she loved it though

Don't let the waves catch you!

That's me on the left. I would have cropped it, but you don't need a close up of me in a swimsuit!

Haley did pretty good on the board to!