Trying

I feel so extremely grateful at this time in my life. I have an amazing husband who not only loves and adores me but loves and adores our children and loves spending time with them and being a father to them! I can't help but be amazed at my life everyday and thank our Heavenly Father for the blessings that he has given me. I have had the chance to look at my life in a different light than I have been because of some events that have happened to those around me. Life is to precious to let it slip by without taking time to see the greatness that is around each and every one of us. Connecticut life has caught up with me in the sense that "I never have enough time to...." Growing up in Utah it felt like life was so relaxed and never rushed! I'm not sure if life feels rushed now because of Connecticut and that is how people live or if Utah just seemed relaxed because I was a child with not many cares or worries. Either way I'm going to try very hard to slow down and take a moment out of every day and look for the blessings of that day and Thank my Father in Heaven for them. I don't think I am going to have to go very far to find some, being that I have 3 great ones in my home, David, Hayden and Kahlin. I am constantly amazed at how much they each teach me and how often they make me smile. These blogs are SO much fun to read and keep in touch with those that normally I wouldn't be able to. I'm going to try to post a blog monthly about what is going on in our lives. Most will probably be about the kids but who doesn't want to know about them!!! :)

Hayden's announcement!!!

My mommy is going to have another baby!!! I'm SO excited! Mom thinks that I will handle it better if it is a girl because I run around the day care giving all the girls kisses. When mom hold a boy I cry and get really jealous! I can't wait to have my little brother or sister to play with! Mom and Dad will know on Tuesday what we will be having. Our baby is due February 24... Love all of you! Come back soon to see what the gender is :)

I just love this picture! Early morning not ready to smile...

Birthday Boy!

I can not believe that a year has gone by! Hayden has grownup so much! He is SO smart and very active and into everything! Today we had a party for him and yesterday he got his first hair cut. They cut off about 3 inches from the top. He looks so much more grown up to me. We are SO grateful everyday for him. He is such an amazing little boy who brings SO much joy into our lives. Not a day goes by that he doesn't make us laugh. Here are some pictures of our little man.
I took these about a week ago... I was trying to make it all stick up so I wouldn't forget how long it was. He was not really in the mood for pictures...



Right Before his hair cut...

Handsome little man!

Hayden's smash cake that I made for him.

Halloween 2010

Hayden has been so much fun! He is a dinosaur for Halloween and he has loved his costume from the first time we put it on him. Today we had our Halloween party at school and then a Trunk or Treating at church. It has been a blast! Can I just say how much we love being parents. I LOVE holidays with Hayden. Makes them so much fun! I can't imagine how it will be when he realizes how much fun he is having. Here are some pictures of our cute little Dino.

Utah Trip

I wrote this a couple days after coming back it has just been waiting for the slides...

We just got back from an amazing vacation in Utah where we blessed Hayden and hung out with the family. We spent a week with Grandma and Grandpa Lovell and the next at Grandma and Grandpa Harding's house. It was so fun having everyone meet Hayden. He was the perfect baby he slept on both flights, the entire time on the way to Vegas and almost the whole flight on the way back to Boston, he just woke up for landing. He had so much fun hanging out with everyone and can't wait to come visit again soon.
Hayden's blessing was very nice. He looked like such a stud! It was so nice that we were able to share this moment with all of our family. We did a double blessing with Brad and Mary Beth's son Ansley who is 3 days younger than Hayden. We did the blessing in Provo at David's grandparents home. Thank you Wayne for taking pictures for us both at the blessing and in St. George.
Mom thank you so much for letting me quilt! I had a blast and we LOVE the baby blanket! Hayden still plays with the bright colors of it and it washed up great. When I got married I got fabric to make a quilt. I cut all the pieces to it and started putting it together. I sent it off to my mom and she finished it for me. Well the same happened with the quilting of it. I started and she finished. It is such a beautiful quilt and I love it. It turned out great. Now I need to bind it I promise not to send it back for you to do mom. :)
Hayden learned some new and relearned some old tricks while out in Utah. We have to thank Ansley for reteaching Hayden how much fun blowing spit bubbles is. He did it for only a couple days and then stopped but after watching Ansley it is his favorite thing to do. Hayden also learned how to sit up without any support and hates laying down now. He thinks he is such a big boy! He is a super active child now and LOVES jumping up and down! I would bet he will be crawling within the next month. He is to curious to just sit and look at something he wants to go and get it.
Hayden went swimming for the first time with Grandma Lovell, Daxton, and I. He was kicking his little legs like crazy and will be a great swimmer as long as the pool is heated. We went again when we were in St. George and the poor boy was freezing! He also went camping for the first time and loved it! Thank you so much Hans and Shellie for the great time up in the canyon also! It was fun watching the boys be boys...
While in St. George we hung out. David played games with his brothers and dad and Hayden and I chilled. We went to Aaron and Brandy's for Aaron's birthday cake on Sunday and dinner another night. Thank you so much it was delicious! I was able to escape and go out to lunch with Sharisa on Monday and Hayden and I went out with Mandi on Friday. It was nice not having any plans while in Utah. My plans were to make no plans and just enjoy our time and that is exactly what we did. I would have to say it was the best vacation we have ever had!
I want to thank everyone for the awesome vacation! I know it isn't easy to drop everything and just hang out with us but we really appreciate you all doing that for us. It was hard for us to return back to Connecticut! We will see you all again in December though. Thanks again!

Blessing Slide Show

Hayden's First Easter

Being a parent instead of the child during the holidays is by far much more fun... Even though Hayden is only 8 weeks old we had SO much fun with him this Easter. We took him on base where they had 15,000 plastic eggs scattered around for the children to find. David and I both helped him find his eggs and put them into his basket. We also had an egg hunt outside with the neighborhood children and our own egg hunt inside. Hayden helped paint 2 eggs and the third was painted and given to us by his bud Calin for his first Easter. (Thanks Laura!) It was so much fun playing with Hayden and helping him find all of his eggs. I can't wait until next year when he will be doing it by himself. We ended our day with Carolyn and Terry who gave us an awesome Easter dinner. We are so blessed and very thankful this Easter season for our Savior and for the sacrifice that he gave for us and for his resurrection.

Connecticut Flood!

After watching the news and seeing the devastation that is across Connecticut I know that we were totally watched over and blessed not only at work but at our home also. We are still on a flood watch because the major river in Ct. is continuing to rise. Norwich which is 20 minutes away got 10 inches of rain in 60 hours and the Montville 5 minutes from us were told to evacuate last night because of a dam that sits above them might break. As far as I know it hasn't.

Yesterday when I was at work we decided to close the center because the road in front of the center was being closed due to flooding. We started calling parents at 10:30 and we got the last of the children out at 2. The parents were unable to get to the center because the road was closed in 3 different places. We had 2 parents that got in but were unable to get back out. We had a parent at the top of the road coordinating with the police and we were told that we would be gotten out by a boat then by the National Guard. Then we were told that no one would be coming for us and to hold tight and that maybe after the tide receded that the water would go down. We are not close enough to the ocean that it was making that much of a difference. As of 9pm it was still closed. I believe that it is also closed today. We had parents climbing over the train tracks and one that wadded through the water, it was up to his waist. We had 4 parents that had gotten to the center and were waiting for the National Guard truck to come for a ride back up the road to CVS when we received the call that they wouldn't be coming. Five minutes later another parent came in and we asked how they got in and they responded that they walked but would be taking the 'Army Truck' back. I ran out front and asked them if they would take all of our parents with them. After they left we had 8 adults and 15 children. Carrie (one of our staff) helped another child over the train track to her mom and asked if the truck would be able to take another load. When the National Guard got to the center the rest of us jumped on the truck and went home. My boss was able to take her jeep out behind us. (I take my camera everywhere with me now that I have Hayden so I got some pics. of it) David had the car so he was waiting up at CVS for us. We took some of the other staff home and then tried to make our way home. Our normal route was flooded so we had to find an alternate route which was kinda fun because I was able to get some good pictures.
This is a parking lot for trucks not a water fall...

This is a house we drove by...

Can you believe this! This is another house we passed...

This is which way we usually go to work. I'll take a picture of it tom. on my way to work. David said the whole parking lot caved in.

The drainage system wasn't even able to hold it all.

This is the road in front of our center and the yellow is the train tracks that the parents were climbing over.

The parking lot of CVS you can see how deep the water is by looking at the shopping cart and the fire hydrant. The road is sloping up.

Terry in her jeep...