Happy Birthday Momasita!

Don't worry! I won't tell anybody how old yar! But I did want to tell you and everyone else who reads my blog how wonderful you are! I was lucky to receive many of your good qualities, either by being a recipient of, or inheriting them. Here are just a few:

*You have an infectious smile that comes from deep inside and shows itself through your eyes!

*Along those lines; you have a soft heart, and are therefore inclined to love everyone!

* One of my favorites; you are never afraid to be silly and fun. Being reserved and proper can be sooo over-rated!
*This is probably my all time favorite and most appreciated; your musicality is to be envied! I remember as a young girl laying in bed and listening to you play the piano, or any instrument really, and singing along. I don't remember you doing it for me to help me sleep, but you did. Any kind of music that comes out of me is directly from you and I can never be more grateful! {Maybe I should FiNAllY learn how to read my notes and play the piano for real so I can inherit grandpa's baby grand!}

I love you mom! So many more things I could write about if only I had the right words and pictures! I don't have a picture that shows your inner strength, But I see it and admire it. I don't have a picture of all your triumphs over heart-breaking trials, but I feel it and know that I can maybe have the same courage. I don't have a picture of your ambition, but I remember it when I think of all I have to do in a day. I don't have a picture that shows all the ways you have improved my life, but I try to be that for others. I DO have a picture of the wonderful piano player you are, and McKay makes sure to remind me that I could and Should be just as good with a mom as talented as you. . .blah, blah, blah!! Happy Birthday Momasita! You're one in a million! MUAW

Hair Today. . .Gone Tomorrow

Morgan has been asking me for some time to cut her hair, but I talked her in to growing it really long so she can give it to Locks of Love. Someone would be very happy to have a wig made out of that hair! Well, we didn't quite make it. She was ready, I was ready to have one less girls' hair to do, and she didn't quite make the inches requirement. Oh well, next time. Her hair grows so stinkin' fast. So, this was Morgan two weeks ago. . .

Look at that fat wad of hair!!!
Emmie also got her hair trimmed that day, but the twirling in the chair was much more exciting for her and Rhyan.

Rhyan showcasing her new "cheesy grin"

"Ta-La!!!!" (that's ta-da in our family)

I HEART this hairstyle. It was cut so it just simply lays like that after washing it. NO blow drying with a round brush. Heck, I hardly even need to brush it anymore! It's fabulous, AND Morgan really likes it too. It's nice to agree on Something with that kid.

Emmers

This was her favorite present that she happened to get from Grandma Jo and Grandpa Doyal. And she is now officially richer than I am with a whopping $18 in her piggy bank! $8 of that she earned picking peaches off the ground at 5 cents a peach. Not bad!!!

My Emmers is now officially 4 years old! Seems amazing to me, and yet, I feel like she should be 5 or 6 with her personality and acting like her older sister. She's funny about most things. She can't really be persuaded to do much of anything unless SHE wants to. And Emmie can make my stomach hurt with the hilarious things that come out of her mouth. The other day, we were driving to my favorite place (wal-mart), and I kept smelling a tar-like burning smell. Every where I looked, though, I couldn't see anything. Emmie also made the comment that something was very stinky. Then we pull a long side an old van that is smoking out the back. So, I point and say, "He's the one. He's the stinky one, Emms!" Right away, she responds, "Maybe he stinks because he forgot to wear underwear this morning!" I think she thought I was actually pointing to a person, instead of a car. Funny kid! Another morning I was trying to hurry out the door, and I asked her if she needed help putting on her shoes (she almost always says yes, even if she doesn't actually need it), and this particular morning she said, "nope, I GOT this!" I love that kid! She can be loving, funny, and adventurous. On the other hand, she will just come inside from playing with everyone just "to be alone." I suppose she's not too far off from her parents! She has thrown quite a unique dynamic in our family that has been wonderful. And she gets "Emmier" every year. Can't wait for the future. . .


This first picture is of our Birthday Bucket (thanks to Jandi for the idea and the bucket). This is what she found in the bucket when she woke up this morning.
Her favorite "purprise," new Fancy Nancy dress-up shoes.

When we got home from church she found more goodies in the B-day bucket! It was just as fun for me to "purprise" her as it was for her. Last night, McKay had a church meeting, so the big girls and I played Old Maid (one of the goodies). I had a lot of fun teaching my girls about how to play games and about being good sports, and also how to TRY to win. My house was a disaster from the day we had, but I tried to put it out of my mind and focus on making Emmie's birthday memorable for more positive reasons. I felt bad too, because earlier I yelled at her for messing up the noodles I was making for her chicken noodle soup. I just want everything, always, to go really well. It doesn't necessarily need to be perfect, but pretty close. Sometimes, I forget that I make as many mistakes or more than my children, who, by the way, shouldn't know as much as I do, and should therefore be given a little extra leniency. How many times must I learn that lesson?

Anyway, back to the pictures. Here's Emmie thinking hard about what to wish for.

"I got it!"

Anxiously, patiently waiting

FINALLY!

"Cheese!" Since her birthday was on Sunday, we decided to have her little buddy birthday party today while the big sisters/brothers were at school. She wanted to have a pajama party. So, we had the girls come in their p.j.s and I painted their finger nails, then they watched a Carebear Halloween movie and had popcorn. Eating cupcakes and opening presents was somewhere in the mix. For our treat bags that we gave to our guests I put mini popcorn bags, nail polish, toe separator things, nail stickers, and some candy. They seemed to be very excited about the nail polish, hopefully their mothers are ok with it!!!

What little girl doesn't love make-up and lip gloss?

Trying out the new lip gloss. . .with a glob of it hanging of her top lip.

Good to see she loves herself as much as we do!

W*a^Ck~Y WeDNEsdAys

Wacky Wednesdays are something I started with my girls last spring time and it has been pretty fun. Some Wednesdays are wackier than others and some get forgotten about, but for the most part, this is our new little weekly tradition. It's fun to mix things up a bit. The girls, of course, are happy to have a more "creative" day without mommy stopping those "creative" forces for a busy scheduled day!

Here are the rules:
1. They can eat anything they want for breakfast and lunch. . .ANYTHING !
2. They can wear anything they want for the day. Although, I reserve the right to "persuade" one way or another given any activities they might be involved in (i.e. no swimsuits for church program practices). Or extreme weather.
3.We can do their hair however they want. . .or not at all. That's the one that makes me cringe a little bit. I don't mind if my kids look crazy for a day, but I don't want them looking like "the neighbor kid" as McKay says. For those that don't know, that simply refers to any child, (except ours) that looks homely or disheveled!
4. I try to let them have special activities on these days too. Morgan gets out of school early on Wednesdays. . .dumbest thing in the world if you ask me or any other parent here. So, anyway, it's usually a good day to go and do something fun. Sometimes we just go to the park and other days we go to the zoo or kangaroo zoo. Sometimes we (me and the kids) just watch their favorite movie together.

Here are some of the few pictures I've taken of my CRazY children. The first time, Emmie wasn't sure about how far she could actually take it, so she decided to still eat cereal for breakfast. She thought it would be amazing to eat it out of this big mixing bowl. . .until she had a hard time scooping the spoon down and still coming up with cereal on it. Watch out Folks! She's pretty Wacky!!!

Morgan, on the other hand, wanted to take advantage and go all out. I believe here she had a brownie with ice cream. . .momma didn't raise no fool!

Finally, Emmie got the hang of it. I can't figure out why she's holding up four fingers, though. But strange and funny things happen on Wacky Wednesdays.

Here are some of their wardrobe creations. So far, it hasn't been to bad.

Emmie with her pajamas and church shoes. . .

Morgan is very serious about her boise state shirt and her green gardening gloves! Is it just me, or does she have the same look as McKay right there? It's hard to tell in this picture, but Emmie has on 2 short sleeved shirts, one of them being the "my dad rocks" t-shirt. Along with that, she has on her too-big jeans with her favorite sundress, a jacket, and flipflops. This was just a couple weeks ago. . .and it was NOT flip flop weather. On the other hand, look at that pose! Not bad.

Introducing. . .Wacky hair by Morgan. Thought and action completed by Morgan.

This Wednesday, I actually got to fix their hair, but then they did this to it. You'll notice that Emmie is wearing her swimsuit as well. Yup, that's it. . .for the whole day.

My Wacky girls.

Emmie was really wanting me to do her hair in a triangle, for some reason, on this particular Wednesday. I didn't have time to look on all the amazing "hair for girls" websites to come up with anything else. But, considering it was an on-the-spot Andrea original, I thought it was pretty good.

That's all she wrote for now. Tomorrow is another Wacky Wednesday. Unfortunately for the girls, they have to get flu shots tomorrow. . .ha-ha-ha! Look who's Wacky now?!

~Hayley~

~It's really amazing to me that a decade has past and I find myself one sister short. It's not like I thought she would come back , but after someone dies, it's hard to see your life without them ten years down the road. It's hard to see what the next WEEK is gonna hold. I have loved my life. . .ALL of it. The good, the bad, the ugly! Part of who I am has come from going through what has proven (so far) to be the roughest time in my life-losing a sister. Not just a sister~ the closest relationship I could compare to having a child of my own at the time. I would love to see her physically stand before me and talk about boys, driving, mean girls, and future plans. Then I would get to warn her of the dangers of texting and driving (never mind, drinking and driving), and dating good guys who see her value and worth, and be her older sister to learn from and lean on. But instead, I feel her inside of me. . . in my thoughts, in my imagination of who she would be today and how our family would be different, especially Randi. I often remember different parts of her life and, although, the picture in my head gets blurrier with each year, the feelings and her spirit are still very much a part of me and my life. I have felt her near and know that she has still been a part of all the most important and joyful times in my life.

Ten years ago, the song, "Angel" by Sarah McLoughlin was popular. In fact, I think it had just recently come out shortly before Hayley died. I loved listening to this song and being able to have a release when I was having a hard day. I know it's a song my mom really likes too. I heard it yesterday in the car and it's amazing how all those same feelings came rushing back. The scenery is different. I'm not by myself driving "percy" my little Toyota on my way to class or work. Now I'm driving a much bigger (and more reliable) car and I have three of my own little "angels" in the back seat. They don't understand why a song can have such a heavy affect on mommy right now, but someday they will. I want them to know about those priceless, and sometimes heart breaking, life experiences that are so important in my life and others.

Here are some of my favorite lines from that song. Although, I'm sure the song is actually not talking about death. . .I think it fits.

there's always one reason
to feel not good enough
and it's hard at the end of the day
I need some distraction
oh beautiful release
memory seeps from my veins
let me be empty
and weightless and maybe
I'll find some peace tonight
in the arms of an angel
fly away from here
from this dark cold hotel room
and the endlessness that you fear
you are pulled from the wreckage
of your silent reverie
you're in the arms of the angel
may you find some comfort here

I have been able to find my comfort in so many places and people. And, of course, knowing that she truly IS an angel and she is waiting for me and all our family to come "home." And when I see her, I'm going to wrap my arms around her and say,"Thank you for being my sister, and teaching me what being "like a little child" is truly all about." I want to be more like her because it turns out, she's the lucky one. . .

Summer Adventures: Final Saga

Our last string of Summer Adventures, and probably our busiest 6 weeks started in middle August when my Dad and sister Alyssa came to visit us for a week. Wait, I forgot. . .about 4 days before they came, Morgan broke her arm at the park when she fell off the monkey bars. The same arm she broke when she was 3. Arrrggghh! That's REALLY when our busiest time of the season began. But, we still found time to do some fun things. We went to Gardner Village, which I believe I've taken most of our visitors. From about April to October they open a little petting zoo and pony ride, so we had to do that, of course!
Morgan with her awesome bright pink cast.

Alyssa sittin' with the girls on the swing outside a cute little store.

After Dad and Alyssa left, the frenzy of Morgan going to school started. Also, I started, along with 5 other women, a little home preschool program for our 3-4 year olds. I was the first teacher, because it was my brilliant idea to go in alphabetical order. That was before I recalled that my name started with an A. Simultaneously, my other sister Randi came for a short, fun visit. The day she left, Jandi and Nathan and kids came. They came for severel reasons, but one of them was for all of us to go to Moab as a dual family vacay. Neither of our families had been there and we (primarily Jandi and I) wanted to do something together with our hubbies and childrens. So we went down on a Thursday and stayed in the cutest little house/duplex rental thing. It was definitely worth the extra dough spent. We got to be with each other more and we didn't have hotel walls or people to limit our fun. We stayed until Sunday, then we drove our separate ways. Moab is pretty close to half way for both of us, so it might be a good meeting place in the future.

Here's Rhyan sizing up the joint. . .making sure the cabinet drawers were sturdy.

This is Sunset outside the front of our little "casa de Joxnam" (Johnson & Oxnam)

And the scenery begins. . .

I love this rock figure. It's called The Three Gossips. I don't remember all the names of the rock figures and arches but I'm pretty sure this one is called the balancing rock. I mean, it fits right?! The Balancing Rock with three lovely girls in front.

I just think this is such a great picture. Emmie laughing and making sure that Morgan is too. And Morgan is all red-faced from the climbing that we found out she loves to do, cast or no cast.

She's a climber! Keep in mind that she was only like 4 feet from the ground. I couldn't handle much more than that.

Kyler (Jandi's oldest) and Morgan were climbing fools. We finally had to make a rule that they needed to always ask if something was ok to climb. Apparently they still don't know much about gravity. Emmie, Morgan, and Kyler (the contortionist)

One of the Sister Arches, or Window arches. I forgot to put a picture that has them together. But it's pretty cool. They are about the same size and along the same rock formation about two hundred (that's a guesstimate) yards apart. If you look closely at the picture you can see a dead tree and a little figure with pink (that's Morgan) standing at the bottom. There's a closer picture. The arches never seem that big until a person is standing next to or underneath it.

Just hiking along to another arch. *Shout out to Kim for the use of her awesome kid back pack. There's no way we could have done as much hiking without it. That's Jandi and Nathan in the background.
A feel good picture. I feel good to have a husband and a cute little girl just for these kind of pictures.
Ok, so the window arches/sister arches aren't so similar in size. This one is a little bigger. See if you can spot me.
Yup! There I am, carrying the very tired, hot, and hungry little Emms. "And as you look to your right out the window, you'll see what we lovingly refer to as the buttcheeck rock." I got nothing for this one. I just thought it looked cool.
I'm trying, obviously, to make this as condensed as possible and only showing about a quarter of the pictures we took. But I fear that anyone else looking and trying to follow along might get confused. SO let me just say, the Arches National Park is HUGE. All of the arches are spread out and therefore require some driving, parking, and then hiking to them. The most famous arch, that is on the Utah license plate is called the Delicate arch. Not knowing the extent of the hike until later, we saved that one for last. Well, we found out that it was a hike, that with kids would take a 2 1/2 or so hours in total to hike up and back. And, we learned the hike is considered to be moderate in skill level. So knowing all this, we weren't sure if we wanted to undertake such a hike with hungry, tired little kids. Luckily, we found out there was a shorter hike that was more of a look out to the delicate arch. So we did that. Once we got up there, this was part of the view. Then you look the other way and you see this. AHHHHH the famous arch. we made it. Ok, this is what you see from where we were. Did anyone else realize that it was on a side of a mountain? Look to the left of the picture and you will see those who decided to hike up to the arch on the little plateau ridge thing. They look like tall ants. After seeing them, I was glad we decided to not take our kids this time.
It was dinner time and you can tell by Morgan's face. This is on the look out which is across a deep canyon from the arch.
"Dad, can we go eat now?"-Morgan

And so concluded our first full day of adventures. Both families done with hiking. Kids are physically spent. And parents are emotionally spent trying to deal with hungry, tired kids who don't know about gravity and cliffs.
On the way down. . .Could this be, before my very eyes, the majestic symbolic bird of our nation? NO, it's just another cool rock with the sun setting behind it. Day Two: The boys rented some 4-wheelin' jeeps to go in to the back country where respectable vehicles aren't allowed. McKay and Nathan were stoked, of course.

This is me smiling and saying between clenched teeth, "Are you sure we won't die?"

Our girls. . .Morgan is not happy because we made her sit in her booster seat, and she is "Not a little kid anymore!" Rhyan is mad because she can't see what's going on, and Emmie apparently, takes after McKay. WoooHoooo.
This is the only arch we hiked to on that day. This is on the top of a rock. Hold on tight McKay!!!
No, SERIOUSLY! Hold on REaLLy Extra tight!
Once we were on the top or the other side of the arch (This is one that you can walk across), McKay took a picture looking out and down. But like most boys, he wanted to see what the very bottom looked like. So he got on his belly and wormed out to the edge to take a picture. That's the next one you see


Remember that rock that McKay was standing on with our girls, yeah this is me and the kids underneath (hello, smarter idea!).

McKay and Morgan and Emmie walking back across the arch- close up.
Not close up
Emmie trying to help Rhyan be happy. Awwww! Our kiddos were pretty good troopers with all the jumbling and bumpiness of the off-terrain driving. Not to mention the wind and dust in their faces.
Driving down a mountain side. . .

Jandi and Nathan's white jeep in front of us and some huge truck in front of them.
McKay wanted to take a picture with the incredible grand canyon-esque back ground. He was about a foot and half away from making me a single mom. A little bit scary!
Phewww! We made it. I had to look back and take a picture.

Betcha didn't know there were pyramids in Utah. . .There isn't. . . .just really cool rocks!

Morgan said this looked like a dragon that was climbing over the edge.
Wait a second. . .what's a jeep commercial doing in my pictures?!!!! Oh never mind, that's just me and Jan. Jandrea looking like we SHOULD be in a jeep commercial. Pay no attention to the child coming out of the car.

Who wouldn't want one of these? The jeep's not bad either. . .Pah-ha. . .I kill me.
Morgan pouting while over looking the green Colorado River. She was pouting because we wouldn't let her go any farther.

Our last stop on day two was to see Dinosaur prints that were fossilized in a rock and indian hyrogliphics (I'm not so sure about the spelling). The dinosaur print looked like a bird claw, but way bigger. There are two of them just above McKay's head.
I just HAD to see the difference between my hand and the dinosaur claw. It is about three times larger than mine. I'm pretty sure there isn't a bird or chicken alive that could make that large of a claw print. That was great.

Last stop, was some Indian Hyrogliphics. (I'm pretty sure that's not how you spell it, but the spell check didn't pick up on it)

Well, that's most of the pictures I wanted to put on here. There are a few more on McKay's computer that I still need to get. But you get the idea. We had fun. It was adventurous and dirty and full of desert beauty. Plus, McKay got to take off Morgan's cast while we were there. She dove into the swimming pool and soaked the cast, so we called a local doc-in-a-box to see what they suggested we do and they said to get it off whithin the next 24 hours becuase it could get fungus growing underneath. That same place couldn't take it off because someone stole their cast removing tool. Who does that? Anyway, we didn't want to spend a couple hundred going to an emergency room, so, luckily Nathan had some tools with him and they cut it with some wire cutters. Voila! It was off and Morgan was a happy camper. Another good thing was that was Saturday night, so we knew we were just driving home the next day, less possibility for something to happen to it. I forgot to add that she was supposed to get her cast off anyway the following Wednesday. I tried to see if they would take it off before our trip, but they said, no! Well, we showed them! Good times!