In Loving Memory

Today I am taking a moment to remember.

In Loving Memory of my Great Gradmother Rosalia Hayes:
Grandma Hayes was a wonderful women. She was a very petite woman that was 110% dedicated to everything she set her mind to. As a child she was guilty of being a little too resourceful when it came to her imaginative play. Due to being raised in such hard times her and her sisters all had one doll to share. She did not often have the oportunity to play with that doll so she decided to go make one herself. In her innocence she unwisely chose to use a dead mouse that she found in the barn as her doll which once discovered was quickly put to an end. Grandma was a happy women. She loved her husband dearly and was very sad when he passed before her and has looked forward to the day they could join each other again for many years. Grandma watched many mothers come and pass in her life due to difficult child birth that claimed their lives so she was always concerned for the well being of her children and grandchildren when they added to their familes. What evidence of love.
Here are some of my limited memories of Grandma Hayes that I don't want to forget: She was immaculately clean always. Her house was small but absolutly perfect in her eyes. Her late husband and her scrimpped and saved for years in order to move out of the old RailRoad car they used to live in and into their beautiful little house. As a child we had a few oportunites to visit that house and my most distinct memories come from the way the house would shake and rumble every night when the train went by. I remember the attic where we would sleep and the amazing aventure that it was to explore all the little nic-nacks around the house. I remember how horrible the water tasted and begging my dad to go to the store for something that was drinkable! There was a HUGE petrified tree stump in the front yard and porch swings. The porch swings were SO much fun Grandpa used to sit with us when we were little I'm sure it was in part so that we wouldn't swing too high but it still felt awesome to feel so loved. Grandma used to hang her cloths out on a cloths line to dry, I thought it was such a novel idea at the time! She was incredibly independent. She lived alone for many years and was always very self sufficient and active. I want to grow old as indipendently as she did.

NOW on to the week:
It felt like a whirl wind of activity.
Monday: was when I found out about Grandma Hayes having a stroke and not being expected to live much longer. The girls and I spent the day running around and keeping busy

Tuesday: I can't remember.

Wednesday: was spent in Loveland with Grandma Waite. we did a little shopping just for the heck of it and I bought my very first purse. Laugh, I know it's sad and funny all at the same time that I'm 23 and have never bought a purse before. Eliza likes to think that the purse should be hers. "it fits me mommy" "look how pretty I am mom!" " Be back laler (later) 'Layna' (blow kiss)" all the while she toting around my purse with a stroller and a baby.
Ben had his first activity night with the youth and that went well but we didn't see eachother all day until we went to bed. I have a sneeky suspision that's how wednesdays are going to be for the next few years!

Thursday was suppse to be 'clean the house and do the laundry and dishes' day. instead Grandma Merritt and Aunt Abby went to the farm and picked corn so we spent the day shucking, cooking, cutting, bagging, and freezing corn. In the end I'm really happy to have tons of yummy corn and even happier to be DONE with all that work!

Friday Grandma Hayes passed away around 1 am that morning. It was Eliza's first playdate with our rotating group of 7 girls. She was at the Mott's house and had a blast until about noon when she started trowing up on them. Poor Mott's. I didn't even get their message that she was sick until it was time to get her anyway so I felt a bit like a heel but such is life I guess, and they were totally cool with it so that's good too! So we spent the rest of the day having a sick day and watching movies trying to keep food down Eliza.

Saturday Ben spent the day fixing the boat with his dad. I dragged Abby out of bed and took the girls to the Corn Roast parade in Loveland and we got to have my family there too (well the ones who still live there) and Grandma Waite made her way to AZ that day too. The parade got cut short because of the heat for us but it was still fun! Then the afternoon was spent at the Merritt's house playing with everyone there!

That about sums up the week and I'm hoping this next week will be a lot less eventful!

When the Boat Breaks.

I love baby feet!

Alayna's learned the joy of rocking chairs. So cute!

Eliza and I were playing Mr. Potato Head and I was jokeing around and put the earings on me so she of course had to have her turn too... she wore them proudly for a few hours until Alayna pulled one off.

Fun week! well the weekend was exceptionally eventful but the week wasn't so bad either.

Monday- Wednesday was the usual. Nothing new or exciting on our end just the normal stuff.

Thursday I left the girls with Grandma Merritt and went out to play with Abby. I have to admit how much I love my in-laws! they are fantastic and wonderful people and I am lucky to have them!

Friday was spent around the house. Eliza wasn't feeling top notch so we spent lots of the day just puttering around the house.

Saturday started nice and early with going out on the boat with Abby, and Justin and Jamie Walpole and they're two kids (Lexi and Hayden). Abby got the one and only run with the boat before it started making bad noises and we had to stop. We were bummed that it was the last chance for Justin and Jamie for a long while (they're moving.) and they didn't get the chance to get a run in but such is life. I got to enjoy time playing with baby Hayden and Eliza thought Lexi was the funnest kid around! After that we spent some time with Doug (Ben's old co-worker) and his family on their boat. Ben taught Garrett (Doug's son) how to wakeboard and he did very well.

After that we had enough time to shower and get cleaned up to go to the Stake Carnival. Eliza had a blast! She did a few of the games this year and then talked us into letting her play on the playground the rest of the time. It was a blast but by the end of the day all the girls in the house have horrible runny noses and trouble breathing. Fall must be on it's way because allergy's are going NUTS!

Sunday: Alayna ended up in our bed that night... no one got any sleep. She's not doing very well and having a hard time coping with the runny nose so we ended up spending Sunday night sleeping on the couch so I could keep her proped up better and not have to get up every half hour.

Ben got a new calling. He's now the 1st councelor in the Young Men's presidency. He'll be working with the 14-16 year old boys in our ward and is really looking forward to all the fun they'll be having!

That was the week. If anyone has good remedy's for kids on the allergy's and colds please let me know!

Better late than never... Right?

Gary Butler... this is how he got all wet he missed the step and ended up chest deep in water!

Ok so it's been at least a week and a half since I last posted... I'm a total slacker but I've also been swamped with homework for school so that is my justification for my lack of blogging.

A very quick run down of the last three weeks...

* It rained. A Lot. the weather decided to mix it up a little with some pretty impressive hail as well.

*Alayna can go up the stairs now... a little too quickly, So we put up a gait because going down isn't really an option in her opinion.

* Eliza thinks she can get away with riding Alayna like a pony (not so much!)

*Alayna is a monkey to the bone. She climbs everything including people.

* her newest trick is her ability to hold on to you when you pick her up. I honestly don't have to hold her she just hangs there like a little chimp.

* We went out on the boat on the weekend per the usual and this time had my Mom, Heather and Heidi along with us! SOOO much fun! Heather showed us all up, Heidi rocked it and Mom even got up!

Two weeks ago...

Ben and I spent the week working on homework, playing with the girls and working.

The homework side of things was a little stressful with it being the last week of class for this round so final projects were set to go.

I took Gary Butler's senior pictures (much to his dismay he did not want to take them at all) but thankfully by the end he was soaking wet and admitted that "It wasn't so bad I guess". the pictures have not been through a final review but I know I got at least one good one even if it's the one of him falling in the river.

Other than that I can't really recall everything we did. it was busy. fun but busy.

THIS PAST WEEK:

It was insane crazy and way too much fun. It was our week off between classes this week and I think we tried too fit one too many things into the week.

*Monday was cleaning the house and finnishing finals.

*Tuesday was playing with Rachel and Hailey (SOO much fun!) Rachel and I took advantage of grandma left all the kids at her house and went to the fair! I had loads of fun! We got some ok pictures of the girls in the dresses that Grandma Waite made for them. Nothing spectacular thanks to the babies needing naps and my poor choice of time to take the pictures at all.

* Wednesday I hung out with the girls... it was the only slow paced unplanned day of the week. Ben went out wakeboarding that evening I decided that it was more important to me to get the girls fed and in bed than going out on the lake (they were grumpy!).

*Thursday I went to the Merritt's and learned how to bind a quilt while the girls patiently played.

*Friday was busy cleaning, then Grandma Waite and family came over to pick up the quilt that Diane donated for Kara's Stroll-A-Thon as well as the bows that I made for the silent auction. After that we went to the mall and walked around for a while which was fantastic! After that I talked Heather and Heidi into spending the night. Sandy Depew came over for dinner and all of us girls had a fantastic time playing board games and chatting it up!

*Saturday was insane! the morning started with the Stroll-A-Thon which was a great success! My bows sold very well as did Diane's quilt! After some fun games for Eliza we did the raffle and won almost everything that we put in for. I got a necklase for myself and Eliza ended up with a Littlest Pet Shop and a Beauty and the Beast tea set. The tea set was the important one of the two. She took some serious cohersing to get her to just leave it on the table until the end but I did it. Then she played the guilt trip on me... she took grandma around and showed her the tea set and told her "grandma I love this but mommy said NO!" (of course she has mastered the big bambi eyes to go with comments like this). Now that she has the set she hasn't stopped playing with it. The good news is I'm now VERY well hydrated.

The afternoon was spent at the Singles Ward birthday party (birthday of it's creation and it's the singles ward where Ben and I met) that was a blast. Eliza thinks the Hansen's house is grand-kid mecca! They have everything! swing set, playhouse/fort, sand boxes, every ride on toy you can think of, a sand volleyball pit, pickleball court, see-saw (one for adults too) and a yard big enough for a good game of frisbee. and that isn't everything! So you can see why she didn't ever want to leave I think she'd move in there if she had the option! I wish I would have gotten some pictures but I was too distracted by other adults to talk to and I just didn't remember. But it was still tons of fun!

*Sunday was normal... asside from Alayna's endless energy. that kid was a handful this week! Eliza didn't want to go to nursery but I think it was a problem of over socialization the day before. Oh well we surrvived so it's all good!

That's the update. If you made it this far congrats!