Easter Day

The gang woke us up at 6:15 to have the annual Easter Egg hunt and find the baskets the Easter Bunny brought. Everyone found eggs and the bigs helped the littles find their baskets. That Bunny can be very clever in his hiding abilities. We did manage to find every single egg so no leftover stinkers for the Hay Gang this year. :) We go to church at 12:30 p.m. this year so we were able to make it on time without having any problems. We spent our time at church learning about our Savior and his Resurrection. Then we were onto Grandma's for a terrific ham dinner and some more egg hunting and candy. Emily, Ali and Pa colored eggs for us to find and they even filled plastic eggs with candy to have more fun with. We got home stuffed, happy and spiritually fed. Everyone in the Hay Gang has one more day off from school except Matthew he gets to go to school today. Now to get some laundry done. Will this ever end? Somehow I'm not so sure. :)

A Snow Day

No, it didn't snow here in Rocklin. We are on Spring Break so I thought wouldn't it be great to go play and sled in the snow. Now, Tom works so this little family memory making outing was up to me to pull off alone. Or was it? Pa decided he wanted to go with us. We went through all the snow gear last night and low and behold we had enough stuff to clothe everyone for the snow. The only item we were missing was a pair of snow boots for Macie. We quickly borrowed them from some friends and our trip was on. Today I made a picnic lunch and packed drinks and snacks and loaded up the van and off we went. Pa drove and I managed the gang in the back. We drove and drove and drove finally finding enough clean snow to sled in up near Donner Lake. (Next year we plan on going up in January :) ) The kids had a great time playing in the snow, throwing snowballs, and sledding. Then we changed clothes and headed back home. We stopped along the road and ate the lunch. I would say many happy memories were made today. Henry really had a ball after all, it was his first time seeing snow. Macie was terrific with him today and helped him up and down the little sledding hill. As I sit here writing this it is raining outside so I'm sure it is raining or snowing up the mountain. I didn't get any sledding pictures because of all the help the kids needed. Pa pushed them down the hill and I took care of getting the sleds up the hill.
What is this cold icy stuff?
Macie and Julia building a snowman.
Pa could you help me with my gloves?
Is this a snowball fight? :)
Thomas found himself a fortress.
Matthew spent a lot of time on his backside.
We had a great roadside lunch. It was very windy.

A beautiful Sunday

Today was General Conference for our church. The Prophet of our church speaks to us at General Conference. The Prophet and Apostles speak to us from Utah and we watch it via satellite either in our homes or at our church buildings. We watch from home in our PJ's. After the 1:00-3:00p.m. session the gang went outside to enjoy the beautiful day. Tom threw the ball around to the kids and then they went out front to look at our fruit trees. The apple tree is in full bloom and as Julia says looks like popcorn popping. During the lookie loo session many bees came to pollinate the tree. The children also enjoyed climbing the fruitless plum (we of course thought it would give us fruit, but found out the hard way that it was fruitless).

Julia is a crazy frog

Thursday night brought us to Cobblestone Elementary for Julia's Tony Crane dance. Macie and Thomas had their dance night last October. This year the theme was "Turn the Beat Around". Julia danced to the song "The Crazy Frog". She was so cute in her costume. I was emotional when I saw my little girl up on stage. She was beaming from ear to ear. The children were all so excited and they did a great job. She waved to the crowd as she walked off the stage. I was so proud of her. This seemed especially important to her because her older brother and sister have performed a Tony Crane dance since they were in kindergarten. Now, she has joined the ranks of the school kids. Grandma and Grandpa along with whole Hay Gang were there to cheer her on. It was a happy night.

Saturday is a Special Day

Yes, oh yes, Saturday is a special day, indeed. We all sleep in a little, have breakfast together, and get to work on the Saturday chores. We have a new plan where we make a list Friday night of everything we want to accomplish Saturday. First and foremost the children need to clean their rooms, sweep and vacuum the rooms as well. We always take out the garbage, and refill all the paper towels and toilet paper. So, today was like all the other Saturdays except Macie was wanting to have a lemonade stand with her friend Kyla. All chores have to be done before any privileges can happen. The lemonade stand started around 11:30 and took a break for 1/2 hour while the girls went to Kyla's tennis lesson. It resumed around 2:40 and went until 3:30. Each girl walked away with $9.25 (they made a killing). They paid Thomas 50 cents to clean up the mess, and I paid their helper Julia, who they didn't think was all that helpful. :)
Tom worked with Thomas and the others (if you can call it help) to put in the garden. We now have tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, beets, onions, beans and some herbs. We are going with plants and seeds this year. I hope we will get some good things because last year time ran out on us and we never did put in our garden.
I did a huge amount of laundry today, and cleaned up in the house. I love going to bed on Saturday night knowing that all is well in the house, and that the gang is bathed and happily sleeping in their beds. I also like being ready for Sunday.
Macie, Kyla and Julia putting in an honest day's work.

Our 2009 garden. Tom, you rock!

Henry and Matthew also had a great day!
Matthew, you are looking good. Who dressed you? :)

Today was such a beautiful day. Tom stayed home from work because we were attending a funeral for a friend's mother. This woman loved the outdoors and her service was a graveside service. The grass was green and the flowers were blooming. The sky was blue and the air was still. Many wonderful words were spoken and another friend played the violin. I so enjoyed hearing about Jennie's life and how she touched many people.
I also took Julia to the eye specialists office. Julia sees many specialists to keep her disorder in check. Poor little thing she fell asleep on the way home and woke with a crook in her neck.
I sure liked having Tom home on such a nice day. He played outside with the boys. Henry sure loves being outside. Even as I write this at 7:45 p.m. there are 3 children still playing out in the almost dark. I remember this time of year as a kid. It was so exciting playing out on a Friday night. I remember thinking how great the weekend was going to be. Now, of course I still think that, but it is because I get some help doing the chores. :)
Being a mom to this gang is fun and full of adventure. I never know what to expect minute to minute. After going to the funeral today I have a renewed desire to be the best momma a gang could have. I hope one day my children will stand before their families and friends and remember life with Tom and me as happy and fun. I also desire to raise my children to be respectful, loving, happy, spriitual, life long learners, and prepared to be parents themselves. This is our responsibility and we take it seriously.

Finally a new post!!

Hey, all you Hay Gang fans I am finally getting around to posting. I didn't realize that I hadn't blogged in over a month. Many things have happened to us in this last month. Where to begin. Well Tom and I served our little gang a beautiful candlelight Valentine's Day dinner. The children loved it. Then we were onto the cub scout Blue and Gold dinner. Thomas and Tom had to prepare a father/son cake. The theme was All American. Our pack chose to have each boy focus on a state. Thomas chose Tennessee because that's where Elvis and Antsy McClain come from. The cake was a guitar. It turned out great and won the Most Creative cake. As the month wore on we went to the ER 2 times. One time was for Henry to have stitches in his nose due to a backyard fall (push) off the picnic table. The other time was Matthew being rushed there because he was found unresponsive in his classroom. It appears as if he has had an absence seizure. We keep a very close eye on him. Macie has had to write the 4th grade mission report and project. She also got to sing the national anthem with her school choir at the opening day of Little League yesterday. We also celebrated Thomas' 9th birthday yesterday with his favorite dinner, steak. March brought us another pinewood derby and Thomas built a motor home car. It was a bit bulky and did not win. The motor home won Most Detailed car and Thomas showed great sportsmanship that night. Here are some pictures of the things that we have done this last month. I love them, I hope you will too.
Also, I ran into one of my dearest and oldest friends this last week. This post is for her. She mentioned that I haven't posted in a while, so, Ter here you go. It was great seeing you and I miss all the fun and adventures we used to have. :)

Photo-challenge

I was reading our friend Jenna's blog and she had a photo challenge on it. She was tagged to post the 6th photo from her 6th folder. So here is ours from my new nikon camera:









Matthew and Julia playing with Henry's formula on the couch. One of the many daily messes I clean up. Ah the joys of motherhood.

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A Talent Show and a Cowboy Birthday

Last Thursday Macie was in the talent show presented by the 4th, 5th and 6th graders at her school. The show was 36 acts long and broken up into 2 acts. Macie was participating in 2 acts and they both were in the 2nd act of the show. Grandma, Pa, Auntie and Uncle were all on hand along with the rest of the Hay gang. We just couldn't wait to see her perform. Her first act was an original skit written by her and performed by Macie and her friend Carlie. It was very cute and she did a great job. The next act she did was a solo performance of the Hannanh Montana song Life's What You Make It She has a sweet voice and seemed like a natural up on the stage. We were all very pleased with her and the courage she had getting up there in front of all those people. The school also showed the talent show in the morning. Macie had to perform in front of the whole school too. Here are some shots of the night. I didn't get any of her performing because I was video taping it, of course.




Now onto the cowboy. Matthew was invited to his first friend birthday party on Saturday. It was a cowboy themed party. He had the time of his life. The party was located where people have property. Matthew was able to ride a horse, play on a zip line, jump on the trampoline, and swing on a rope swing. The little boys decorated paper-bag vests, played with water guns and shot toy lizards and ate cake. Oh what fun he had. The pictures tell the whole story.

Just Another Day

Sometimes I think about this blog and think that I have to only blog spectacular thing. Then, I remember why I started the blog and that was to record the everyday, normal. run of the mill things that happen to us the Hay Gang. Today was just another day. We woke up and did the morning rush to feed the gang and get them out the door to school and work. Julia had swim lessons and I picked Macie up from school and took her to the ortho. We are still in a holding pattern for the braces. (mom says yeah no payments yet. :) ) Since I had Macie my dad took Julia for her swim lesson and apparently she had her best day yet. She made it from one side of the pool to the other. This is what she needs to be able to do to make the swim team this summer. It will be fun having three of the gang on the LBD team.
I then went to Target and got the bushel of diapers/pull-ups that I buy each month and found a pretty new bedspread to buy for my bed. I actually have never bought one for this bed because it was given to us and was bigger than any bed we have had in the past.
Then I went and picked up Matthew at school. Put the boys down for a nap. Picked kids up from homework club, took Macie to Activity Day girls and came home to make dinner.
Now they are all in bed and Tom and I are anxiously waiting for our new favorite show to start, Life.
Off to watch the tube. Oh, happy day just like any other day!

The Gang having fun just like other days. :)

Floor Mate giveaway

I ran accross this blog that is giving away a Hoover FloorMate. Check it out you have until Feb 15th to enter. Enter the contest here.