Pioneer Day... (celebration)

So we didn't get to do anything on the actual 24th of July for Pioneer Day. We don't  get those extra set of fireworks, parades, business closures and all of the fun stuff you get in Utah for the holiday, here in Missouri (in fact it's not really even recognized). We did get to have our ward Pioneer breakfast on Saturday morning though. The kids thought it was so much fun to wake up and go eat at the church. We all had a good time. It was fun to watch the kids play games that the pioneers once played. 

This is about the only good picture I got of Hayden, he finally broke free from me to play. The rest of the games he was attached to me somehow. 

This game was something the kids made up. I don't really know what they were doing but it was creative and they were having so much fun. 

She loves her milk! 

(below)Alyssa was really trying to figure out that hula hoop. She liked it. They originally tried to do a game where you push it along with a board. It just didn't work the same as the wheel that was flat that pioneers used.

Another game, like duck, duck goose but you say something like... I had a little dogie and he... wouldn't pick you, and.... 

then you drop the scarf at the person you pick and the rest is the same.

Alyssa played for awhile. She just doesn't get the taking turns thing yet for some reason, she would cry harder and harder every time someone else would have a turn and she didn't get picked! It was very dramatic for her. She finally just got up and pouted on a step alone for a bit. 

hopefully she will learn soon.

fun playtime with the kids

I didn't realize how busy this week was going to be until it just happened. 

Monday morning first thing we left to Becca and Matt's 

house to help out after Becca spent all 

day Sunday in the hospital trying to figure out what her pain was. 

We played a lot with Izzy and Alex.

We went to Powder Valley  and had a picnic, walked a trail and 

played with all of the fun animal stuff inside the center.

Everyone tuckered out from the long .5 mile walk.

 

Hayden, Alyssa and Alex

We had some really fun dancing time! 

More dancing.... 

Brandon performing a song for us.

(That huge flower is his microphone)

Lots of jumping!

They were using the trampoline as a slip and slide.

More water time.

Showing off

The kids all helped to lead the closing song during family home evening.

       

We always have a fun time there. I am glad we live close enough that we can just get up and go in almost a moments notice. 

Now as we come home from being  gone all week Justin left out of town for work for 4 days! We have all missed him. 

The kids are going to be excited to see him come Monday night. 

Somebody has a new bike.....

This is one happy little guy. He got a new bike. It was a nice gift from a neighbor and we just couldn't wait until his birthday, 1. because he is just growing way too fast and 2. Summer will be almost over by then. I guess he does have it in the basement right now and weather is not an issue.... but, this is not the only new bike at our house....

He also thinks this is his..

But, it's Dad's new motorcycle! 

He's really had it a few weeks now but I was waiting to get a good picture of him on it, which hasn't happened yet, but this will do for now. 

The kids all love it, Hayden always has to see it whenever it is in the garage. 

Justin has ALWAYS wanted a motorcycle. He knew one day he would have one, but I always told him no! There was no way I was going to let him have one because I was scared to death for him to ride it in the city with all of the crazy drivers. 

Well, with our recent changes in life, I decided since we are in such a smallish town, I won't worry quite as much, and I gave in. 

Youth Conference

This past week I had a chance to attend a day at Youth Conference. Due to the responsibilities of being a Mom we all had to take turns going. It was great that our presidency all got a day. It was a mini EFY for four stakes at the University of Missouri. What a beautiful campus. We were able to stay in the dorms and use many of their buildings.

We had two guests through out the whole conference.... Brad Wilcox and Alex Boye. These were both wonderful speakers and I know they had to make an impact on the youth.

I loved what they both had to say. 

Here is just a bit of what was spoken.... 

I had actually been thinking partially about what Alex spoke on. I love music. It can change my mood in a moment depending on what it is. It can calm me or give me a sense of energy, depending on the beat, tone and words. Music is full of emotion and can bring out the good or bad in anyone. This is what Alex spoke on. "the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me". In other words, songs are prayers unto God. So, if you are listening to music that does not make you feel good, that talks about bad things and has bad lyrics, and if songs are prayers.... who are these songs for then? Satan.

He talked of a friend who had many problems in her life. Many things were wrong. Alex looked at her CD collection and told her that no wonder she is having these problems her music is telling her to do these things. It's all depressing. It talks about cheating, committing suicide, being depressed, drinking etc.... he found many songs that said these problems of hers specifically.

There was a boy who had killed a person. He fled the scene but left his ipod behind on the sidewalk. What did the police find playing when they picked it up and listened to it. A song about going to kill someone. It was on repeat. He already had the rage in him and the music helped to push him over that edge.

Anyway. He talked a long time about music and the way it affects our lives. It really does have an impact on the way we act. Alex was amazing with the youth. He really had them captivated. It was good to hear about the power that music can have in ones life.

Brad Wilcox is also amazing. He took some of the most touchy subjects and made it come across in a way they would really understand. I will always remember this talk when my children get to that age that we need to talk about everything. Which will sneak up on us too fast!

Thanks to my most wonderful husband who watched not only our kids but two other peoples kids while I was gone for a few days. What a great guy!  You're the best babe! 

            It was a good refresher to get away and to feel of the energy our youth have. They are some amazing kids out here. I can't even imagine growing up here where there are such small numbers of members. 

They do great though. 

Baby Karynne

update: I am sure it has been a long hard week for Matt and Kirstyn especially, along with everyone else helping out. Karynne has had her ups and downs this week. The latest news is that she was taken off of the ventilator yesterday.  She is still growing and starting to move more. 

A few new pictures of Karynne and Daddy Matt....

My little brother Matt and his wife Kirstyn had their baby last night.


Karynne Taylor Hastings

Born: July 17, 2008 @ 11:16pm

approx. 30 weeks (10 weeks early)

3 lbs. 5 oz., 16"

Mom and baby are doing good right now. Karynne is in NICU, she needs help breathing. In the picture you can't tell how small she is. Her head is about the size of a Pringles chip's lid.

She will probably be in the hospital for 8 - 10 weeks.

Thanks for the updates from our mom!

Kirstyn's water broke last night and then later found out she had an infection. This is why the baby came so early!
She will be in our continuous prayers.

Memory of us

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Time goes by too fast. So many little things have happened and I have just slacked off on posting them. So here is a few all at once and there will hopefully be more to come sooner than later. 

Brandon lost his first tooth a few weeks back, and then on July 4th, while he was doing the sparklers his second just fell out! He wouldn't pull that one he was too scared. kind of silly. You know they are growing up when they start losing their baby teeth.  By the way.... This is his self portrait. I found it on my camera later. Thus the fuzziness.

He told us he was going to stay up all night and watch for the tooth fairy and catch her, and keep her! He then learned that she couldn't do her job if he did that. 

                                    Alyssa.... poor girl! You would "think" because it is summer, that the sickness would be gone! but it isn't and we went to the Dr. and she has strep throat.  We all just went through this at the beginning of the year. So my fingers are crossed for the rest of us.  

As you can tell in the picture, we gave the boys Super short hair cuts for Summer. When Brandon first looked in the mirror, his response right away was "I look like uncle Jordan!"  It made us laugh. It's funny that he picked him and not one of the boys. 

I guess you can't really see... but this is a picture of a baby cardinal. The dad kept feeding it. it was sweet. 
Last Thursday we took a day trip to Independence. It was very short, but we stopped by the visitor center while we were there. It is always good to go there.

 Do you ever have days like this? What is wrong with this picture? (Hint) Look up at the right hand corner......     I found this about three days later.... It didn't smell, it actually was a yogurt consistency. Gross huh? I knew that day it had gone missing that we should have had more milk than we did. I was really confused. Who did it? We aren't exactly sure.... 

Independence Day

Soooo... I am a few days  behind.

We had a great 4th of July! 

The kids all had long naps and then we went over to a friends house

 for a bar-b-que and hanging out

some fireworks in the street and the local fireworks show.

Brandon loves the sparklers. Being his normal silly self.

Alyssa and Brandon and friends in the background

Hayden and Mom

He was a little scared still of all of the loud noise. He was okay

if he was right next to me though.

Alyssa was pretty amazed. Her faces were all pretty much like this one the whole time.

except some she was holding her ears. 

this is what she thought was so amazing! 

More amazement.... Brandon being cheesy

This is Jill and Casandra, We were at Jill's house

just a couple of friends that were there.

We really missed Dad this year. It wasn't the same witho

ut him. Last year was such a fun 4th with him doing the HUGE show for us in our driveway and just being together... He had to be at work though, but at least he was able to watch the fireworks with the kids there. 

Hayden's big scare

Wednesday we had a playgroup at the city pool. I was nervous about taking the kids without dad like I usually am, but figured it wouldn't be so bad with Alyssa not with us. I love taking them swimming and playing with them in the pool. My kids love the water. 

Well, we weren't there that long when Hayden 

did have an accident..... 

He was face down in the water for only a short time but he wasn't moving. He was breathing  when he was pulled up. He threw up lots of water and he wouldn't open his eyes. When we could finally see them they were very dialated and kept rolling then they would close again. He was pretty blue around the mouth too.  I had to go to the lifegaurds to tell them what had happened. Then the girl had no clue what to do!! She had to go get an adult life gaurd to help.

When the paramedics checked his oxygen it was below normal. One said his lungs didn't sound good and the other said they did.

We did take him to the ER and had X-rays done and blood work.

We found out the next day that he did have a lot of fluid in 

his lungs and his blood was very diluted and his counts were low. 

They transfered him up to Columbia to the children's center.  

Here he is getting on the ambulance to be transfered.

These are out of order, but, 

He was not happy to get on that stretcher.

He had fallen asleep on dad just after they did his IV.

By the time I got up to the hospital (they were just over an hour ahead of me.)He had already changed a lot! he was standing up in his bed jumping around and crashing on purpose. He was so happy to see his own pillow and blanket. 

The next morning they took more 

X-rays and checked his blood. 

His blood was normal and his lungs just barely had a trace of something in them. They originally told us we would be there for 2-3 nights. Well, we showed them! They were really surprised how fast he healed.

I am so thankful we were able to give him a blessing and for all of the prayers and support every one gave. I know it really helped in healing him faster.

They were wonderful at this hospital. It was a really nice place, they really made it better for having to be there. 

They had toys for him to play with and when he was finally disconnected from all of the machines he had a playroom to go 

to and a room full of goodies just for him. 

Thanks to all of our good friends who helped and made everything go so smoothly and a lot easier!  

It was so hard to see him go through this. 

I am so thankful for and love our sweet Hayden so much and I am very glad nothing worse came out of this.

Just me and the boys

While Alyssa was away I had a lot of fun one on one time with my boys. We didn't do a whole lot, but it was fun. We went out to eat and for treats.  

We played a lot of board games like..... 

And...

that we normally can't play yet with with a little sister who doesn't quite get it yet. 

We went on fun walks to the dock to throw rocks in the water. (the boys could sit and do this for hours!) 

We went on car rides and rescued a huge toad from almost becoming one with the road.

on a side note:

On this same car ride I had a good conversation with Brandon. 

B: Mom. Can we go to the gas station and get bug juice?

Me: No, it is Sunday, we do not shop on Sunday's. 

B: But, it's not shopping and it's not a store it's just the gas station. 

Me: A gas station is a store and you have to buy, or pay for anything you get there. 

B: Oh. (kind of confused)

Played at their favorite pirate ship park!

They got to go to spend some quality time with dad and then go to friends houses all day

while mom got some much needed time off from mommy duties to refresh.

I am sure there are other things I did not include. It was a good time spent with them.

Alyssa's on vacation

Here is my sweet and Sassy little girl. 

She has really been enjoying herself at Aunt Becca and Uncle Matt's house with her cousins Alex & Izzy. Here are some pics Becca took of the girls. 

As you can tell she is not scared of anything! Which really scares me. I have always been terrified that she would pick up a snake at home. Someone was helping her there. I love this picture because she is all sweet and innocent in her dress but holding that snake like it is nothing.

A little baby pig. She loves any animal, creature, anything with legs that moves she will hold it... yes including spiders and bugs. Ewwww. She is so girl, but just so adventurous.

Being dramatic with her cousins. Look at how tall Alex is compared to Alyssa and she is a year younger than her! she is definately taking after me. 

I love and miss my little Sassy girl. I started a whole post on her a month ago and never posted it, so maybe I will just add it to this soon... stay tuned....