Backyard Fun

Hailey, Ian, Meagan, and Hayden on the trampoline. Hailey's turn to get "blowed" by the blower.

And Meagan's turn.

After we got home, Brian started mowing and it didn't take long before the yard was full off kids!!! The kids had a blast with Meagan and Ian in the backyard jumping on the trampoline. Brian was blowing the grass off the back patio and went over to blow them and I got a picture of it. It was hilarious because the girls hair was sticking straight out. Then we all went to the front yard to practice jump roping. Hailey and Meagan both want to try out for the jump rope team at school. They actually have to be able to do quite a bit so we thought we might practice. They practiced for awhile and then Ian's twin brothers came over to play. Brian, had them all (6 kids) sitting in a circle with him around a hula hoop doing "magic tricks" for them. Ian's mom and I could barely hold in our laughter. The kids were just amazed! They sat and listened so intently to everything he was saying. It was great! I told him we needed to market him....who knows, he could be the next Wiggles, right? Ha!Ha! But he was really good with them. After pizza delivery and baths, everyone is now in bed...yeah!!

Frosty being "blowed". She wasn't too fond of it and was trying to run away from us. It was pretty funny though!

Branson

Brian and I at Montana Mikes Steakhouse

We had a great weekend! Brian and I went to Branson with our friends, Jon and Cathy. We had lots of fun. We got their on Friday and went to dinner at Landry's. It was very good. Then we went back to the condo, which was very nice, and played mexican dominoes until 12:30 a.m. Saturday morning we all slept in and Cathy and I went shopping at the new Branson Landing Mall. It is an outdoor mall that was built alongside the Lake with a trolley that goes up and down the center. It is very pretty and the weather was great. They guys stayed back to watch football and then met us out there for lunch and a trip to the Bass Pro Shop. They headed back and Cathy and I continued our shop-a-thon. We did pretty good and found some good bargains. We are alike in that we like to look for the good deals. It's like hunting for the guys! We stopped shopping at about 6:00 (7 hours worth) and headed back to pick up the guys for dinner. We ate at a steak restaurant and then on to Krispy Kreme's!!! Yummy! We made it back for the Jermaine Taylor fight which was very sad. After another night of dominoes until 1:00 a.m., we are exhausted! We got back home around 1:00 today. Mimi and PopPop stayed at our house last night with the kids and Hannah. Thanks Mimi and PopPop...you guys are WONDERFUL! We appreciate you sacrificing your weekend soooo much! The kids had a great time. Hailey got to stay the night with Hannah on Friday night at Uncle Scott's while Jeremy and Hayden stayed at Mimi and PopPop's. I think they are all exhausted, too. Well, hope everyone else had a good weekend...the Razorbacks finally pulled one off, huh?!

Jon and Cathy

The Fair

Hailey, Hayden and Momma on the Tilt-a-Whirl....their VERY favorite ride. And I didn't even get sick!!!! :)
Mimi and PopPop watching the action. Thanks for coming with us.....it was alot of fun!

Hayden zooming down the big, yellow, bumpy slide and then the two of them in the yellow convertible mustang.

The kids waiting in line for the race cars....one of their favorites!

Well, we had another crazy week. After we got home from the parade Tuesday night, I realized Hayden had pink eye! After calling the doctor that morning for medicine, we didn't get it until late afternoon, so Hayden had to end up missing 2 days of school. He was very disappointed! But, he got to go back on Friday for his 1st fieldtrip to the fair to see the animals. They had a great time. We all enjoyed our time with Poppy and Grandma, too. They came in on Tuesday afternoon and left Thursday morning. We had a good visit, but Brian didn't get to spend much time with them since he was traveling with work. Maybe next time! We ended our week with a trip to the fair tonight to let the kids ride rides. We met Mimi and PopPop at Mazzio's for some pizza and then it was off to the fair. The kids were great and they really enjoyed themselves. They got to ride several rides and even won a prize doing the fishing game. Hailey won an inflatable Dora that she is driving us crazy with. She keeps "talking" for Dora and it is very annoying! :) But, not as annoying as Hayden's HORN that he won! Oh well, I guess it comes with it right? We saw lots of friends and the weather was great. We will have another soccer game in the morning and the rest of the weekend should be pretty relaxing....thank goodness. That's all for now....Go Hogs and Strikers! (Hayden's team :) )

Poppy, Grandma, Hailey, and Hayden posing before they headed back to Texas.

The County Parade

We had a great time at the county parade today. Hayden, Hailey, Meagan and I got us some pizza and drinks and had a picnic as we waited for the parade to start. It was a long wait but the kids were great. They sat there for 2 1/2 hours! We saw lots of cool stuff. Hayden was wowed by the firetrucks until they let off a LOUD noise and he jumped so high and covered his ears....pretty funny! It kind of scared me too!



Hayden loved the tractors! We waited and waited to see Hannah on her float and when we finally found her float, she was on the opposite side from where we were sitting. The kids were disappointed that they did not get to see her. I had to run in between floats during the parade to get to the other side to even get a picture of her! She looked so cute! I just wish the kids could have seen their cousin! We had a good time and it was tiring. Now we will venture out to the fair one night this week and let the kids ride some rides and see all the animals....and Momma and Daddy can eat some of the good, greasy food they have! :)

Hannah, the little blondie, to the left with her cheerleading group.

Poppy and Grandma Are Here!

Well, after a long drive, Poppy and Grandma made it! The kids were excited that they would be spending two nights with us. We got back from the parade and they were here with Cocoa. They had hats and Texas A & M shirts for them (boo!) Just joking. The kids were excited and tired from the parade. They played with them for awhile and then crashed.

Hailey, Hayden, and Cocoa with their new hats Poppy and Grandma brought.

CHEESE!

Hayden's 1st Soccer Game

Hayden posing for a soccer picture. Thanks Aunt Kristen for taking some pictures for me!

Watch out David Beckham! Ha!

Hayden had his first soccer game Saturday. Yea, he participated! He really enjoyed having everyone come watch him....even if he only made contact maybe once! But, if you ask him, he got it in the net 4 times! Thanks Mimi, PopPop, Uncle Scott, Aunt Kristen, Jeremy, Hannah, and Madison for coming out to root for him. He loved the attention! The weather was really nice and the monstrous mosquitoes weren't so bad Saturday! We didn't win (even though they do not keep score). Afterwards, Brian and Hayden went to Nana's to do yardwork and have lunch while Hailey and I went with my family to eat lunch at El Chico. We had a good time. Hailey was sad because she wanted to have a sleepover at Hannah's but she is still not 100%. She got a little puny Saturday afternoon, but now she seems better except for a nasty cough. She will go back to school tomorrow. Our Saturday ended in disappointment as we watched the Razorbacks come back only to falter in the end to Alabama. Boo! We are getting ready for a busy week. Brian leaves tomorrow to go out of town for orientation with work until late Wednesday night. Roger and Shirley will be in town and stay with us for a couple of days this week so the kids will enjoy seeing them! They haven't seen them in several weeks since they moved. We have our county parade and fair this week, too. So, they have alot to look forward to. Hope everyone had a good weekend and I will try and get some more pics of this week from the fair and parade.

Hayden in action!

Hayden's "birsty". :)

Hailey & Hannah cheering on Hayden.

Mimi and Hailey hangin' out.

Hayden's Soccer Schedule

Here is a schedule of Hayden's soccer games for those of you who are interested in coming.....

U5 05 LEACH(AR/Fall/U-05)Aug 31, 2007

chg
H/A
Date
Time
Opponent
Location

H
Sep 15, 2007, Sat
11:00 a.m.
U5 16 STEELEMAN
FSP # 6A

A
Sep 22, 2007, Sat
11:00 a.m.
U5 21 WOODS
FSP # 6B

A
Sep 29, 2007, Sat
11:00 a.m.
U5 20 HARRISON
FSP # 6A

H
Oct 6, 2007, Sat
10:00 a.m.
U5 08 DAMIEN RYE
FSP # 6A

A
Oct 13, 2007, Sat
9:00 a.m.
U5 12 STUART
FSP # 6A

H
Oct 20, 2007, Sat
10:00 a.m.
U5 22 MCFADIN
FSP # 6B

A
Oct 27, 2007, Sat
12:00 p.m.
U5 10 SMITHHART
FSP # 6C

H
Nov 3, 2007, Sat
11:00 a.m.
U5 11 STROZIER
FSP # 6A

The Sick One

Well, it has been an eventful week. Hailey has missed school since Monday with what we thought was a virus (vomiting and fever). Come to find out it is pneumonia! She has been so sick. She has had no energy or desire to play at all. She hasn't been eating/drinking/pottying either. She finally perked up a little yesterday and played some. Her color looked better until time to take her medicine last night. She immediately threw it up because of the taste. We tried again and she threw it up again. I tried everything to get it down her. Hailey even called Mimi and asked her to come over for moral support,.....and Mimi did of course! But she still threw it up and started crying and coughing so hard that she had an asthma attack and almost landed in the ER. We could not get her to stop the coughing from the asthma. Finally, a humidifier and propping up and calming down, she was able to breathe and get some rest. She seems quite a bit better today and has started eating more. She still is coughing quite a bit though. We got her medicine changed to a chewable Amoxicylin (?). She took her first dose very well. We have a big day tomorrow. I will frantically be calling trying to get through to buy Hannah Montana tickets for us and Hailey's best friend, Megan and her mom. Tammy (Megan's mom) and I have our "game plan" so hopefully we will be successful. Right about that same time, Hayden has his first soccer game. He did much better at practice this week. He went straight out there and did everything his coach asked him to do. I was very proud of him! I will have some pictures from tomorrow's game so check back later for those. Everyone have a safe weekend!

Our Week So Far

Hey everyone! Well, we made it through the party weekend! Now Hailey is sick. She's had a cough for a couple of days that I attributed to her asthma flaring up but now it has become a wet cough. Then she started throwing up last night. She got sick 5 times in 3 hours before it finally stopped. Now she is just very puny (?) and is running a fever. So I am home with her and Hayden today and probably tomorrow too since she is running a fever. We don't have alot going on during the week this week. Hayden will attempt soccer practice Thursday night if it is not too wet and his first game will be Saturday morning at 11:00. Hope everyone's weekend went well!

Hayden's 1st Soccer Practice

Well.......soccer practice did not go as well as we anticipated. Hayden has been sooooo excited about playing soccer and who all is going to come watch him. We pull up and the excitement turns to tears. He didn't want the shin (?) guards on and did not want to play soccer all of a sudden. After pulling him out of the car and off of me he still just screamed bloody murder. It was so embarassing! After many tries of going out there with him and such, I took him to the bathroom for a spanking and a "coming to Jesus" meeting. I got him out there for one kick and then we were crying again. Finally, Hailey worked. Once she got out there with him, he would do alot more. Hopefully next week will go better since we have already paid for him to do this. You will notice the blotches on his face from the crying. Of course, he got a smile on his face when it was "drink time" and they all got a gatorade. We'll see. School went good this week and I have not been late any!! :) We will have a busy weekend. Hailey has a sleepover birthday party Friday night, a party Saturday and Hayden has a party to go to on Sunday! Well, we are off to go get pizza and a movie! Have a good weekend everyone!

Hayden's 2nd Day of School

He definitely enjoys posing for pictures!!

Ready to Go Hunting

Here is Hayden modeling some of his camo.

Hayden's 1st Day of School

Hayden is ready for school...fake smile and all! :)
Isn't he just so cute? I can't believe he is getting so big and will be in kindergarten next year! Of course, he says he already wants to be in 1st grade.

Hayden had a good first day of school. When we pulled up the first thing he said was, "Momma, can I walk in by myself?" I couldn't believe it...I guess he want's to be like Hailey, but they can't walk in by themselves at his school. We have to walk them in and sign in. He had a good day but I was out of sorts. With it being his first day and all plus my mom had surgery this morning, I was all off schedule. I had planned to take Hailey to school, go to the hospital to see my mom before they took her back, go drop Hayden off, come back to the hospital and wait until I could see her after her surgery, go to work for a meeting and to see a couple of kids and then pick up Hayden and then Hailey. Well, I got my times mixed up even though Hayden has been going to this school since he was about 18 months old. The times are 8:45 to 2:30 and I was thinking he had to be picked up at 2:45. Well, as I am pulling up at 2:44, the teacher calls to say she is waiting in the office with Hayden. I felt awful...I have NEVER done that! He could've care less but I felt like a terrible mom! Anyway, I recovered. :)

Hayden with his spiderman lunch box.
Hayden went straight in and to the sand table. I had to get him to stop and look for a second to get his picture.

Labor Day at The Big Dam Bridge

We're ready for our bike ride up The Big Dam Bridge, Momma! :)

We decided to forgoe a trip to the water park, fearing the water may be too cold and a possibility of rain, and opt for a bike ride instead. We loaded up all the bikes and drinks and headed down to The Big Dam Bridge. Hayden had a little trouble gettingup to the top but made it! I must admit my thighs were throbbing, too! But, we made it and got a good view of boats and fishermen, not to mention a lesson from Brian on how the boats comeup and they raise the water for them to get to the other side. :) We headed down going 90mph of course. All of us but Hayden are just coasting down, but not him. He has got the pedal to the medal. It was too cute. He hunkers down and grits his teeth and is pedaling just as fast as his feet can keep up with the natural spinning of the wheels coming down from such a big ramp. He was flying. I was just worried he would plow over another person. We made it down and continued along side the river until almost the Burns Park soccer fields. We decided we better turn around when Hayden started complaining of his "feed burning" and he was hot. So after pouring water over their head, they were ready to head back. We had a good time and hopefull I lost some lbs. On our way home, we stopped by to visit Brian's grandparents and the kids raided the piggy bank, as usual. We had a great day together. Hope everyone else enjoyed their Labor Day, too!

Brian with the kids after our bike ride. Hayden was ready for some Mtn. Dew!
Here is the kiddos in front of The Big Dam Bridge.

Sunday Fun with Cousins

Today we had a fun filled day with my brother Scott's kids. This is Jeremy, Hayden, Madison, Hailey and Hannah. We went to church this morning and then met my brother's family and my parents at our favorite Mexican restaurant for lunch. Afterwards, we took the kids for a swim at Judy's house. Then it was off to Mimi's house for a hamburger and hot dog cookout. We ate too much! PopPop brought out the watermelon and the kids lasted for only a few bites before PopPop had them in a seed spitting contest. Then it was off to feed the rest to the horse who was thrilled to see them coming! He was foaming at the mouth and ate every bit of it. We had a great time and good food! When we got home we all got our showers and popped popcorn for a "movie night". It was Hailey, Hayden and I watching High School Musical (which we've already seen) but it was fun. Hayden lost interest once Brian got home from dove hunting and he had to go check out the birds. He wants to like them but wants me to like them and eat them too. So he kept coming in and asking if I like to eat them or touch them. Of course, you KNOW what my answer was! It was funny though. Brian brought in a bunch of new hunting clothes that he bought and of course Hayden wants them all.

Watermelon Fun

Here is Hayden giving his watermelon away.
Hayden, Hailey, and cousin Jeremy participating in a watermelon seed spitting contest with PopPop before they realized it would be much more fun to feed it to the neighbors horse.

Sunday at Mimi's

Here is Hailey giving her watermelon slice to the horse. She loved hand feeding her and was not scared a bit!
Here is Hailey waiting for her turn to feed the horse.

The Week of August 27th

Well, I had trouble posting this week again. It locked up on me and saved the draft with the pictures but not the text. So, I had to go back and try to remember what I had typed and re-post it. Brian is dove hunting this weekend and will be home Sunday afternoon. He has my camera so I won't be able to put any new pics on until then. Not much has been going on this week except school. Hayden had his orientation on Friday and is very excited about starting school on Tuesday. I will have more pictures of him then. We have been going on bike rides every night and it has been fun. Hailey had her second bike wreck last week and it was a doozy. She and her friends were riding down one driveway and ramping up the one directly across when she went airborn and busted it. I had my head turned talking to another mom but my friend saw it happen and said her head actually bounced off the concrete. It was pretty scary. She had a goose egg immediately on the side of her head, a tire burn on her forearm, a scratch on her calf and cut on her ankle. Her jaw was sore too and still is. I have been telling Brian they need to wear their helmets but you know him..."We never wore helmets when we were kids!" So, momma rules from now on and they will be wearing their helmets! We never wore seatbelts growing up either....I don't think we even had seatbelts in our cars until we got older. :) I am trying to teach them the rules of riding on streets, i.e. what side of the road to be on and how to stay off to the side, etc. But, when Brian goes it just gets all messed up. He is worse than the kids! He is in the middle of the street and weaving back and forth. I guess he is going to have to take my safety class, too! :) or be reprimanded! :) :) Anyway, we thanked God in our prayers that he protected Hailey from more serious injury and I explained to her how serious it could have been. We even got to watch Mimi on the bike last night! She stayed the night with us since Daddy is gone and we can have some girl time. It was fun. We stayed up and had our popcorn and cokes and watched all the home shows...just like old times!!!! We always love to have Mimi come and stay except we all fight over who gets to sleep with her....OK, even me. Well, that's all for now. Oh yeah, GO HOGS GO!!!