Caterpillar to Butterfly

Thanks to my great friend, Denise, we were able to watch our very own caterpillar grow from a tiny little guy, into a big fat caterpillar, watch it make a cocoon and burst out into a beautiful butterfly. My only regret is not taking pictures at all the stages. Both the boys loved watching the caterpillar eat all the leaves we gave it and grow and they were ecstatic this morning when we found it had come out of the cocoon and was a beautiful butterfly. We let it get a little more steady and then sent it off into the world. What a fun experience! Thanks again Denise.

Labor Day Fun

We had so much fun as a family over Labor Day weekend. We went to the children's museum here and played mini golf there. The kids loved it-Connor because he's totally into it, Haydn because he loves balls and fun places to roll them as you can see. We also found a new hobby we love--GO KARTS! We did this a few weeks ago for the first time and over the weekend we found an even better place to do it. Connor is in HEAVEN when we go as you can see from the constant bright smile on his face. Haydn loved it too. We did some bumper boats too. Connor and I got much wetter than we were supposed to but it was beyond a blast. I just love seeing the sheer joy on our kids faces. It's so fun to have boys!

California Trip

I stole a couple pics of the wedding from my sister's blog because I mostly took videos of everything. Here's Haydn with his new little cousin Ben.

This is all the married Hall/Harrison granddaughters--me, Jessica and Katie

Here's all of the bride and groom's immediate family and grandparents

Haydn had a blast playing with my cousins here's a pic of them playing nintendo together, trying anyway!

While in CA we got to go on a very quick jet ski trip for a couple hours one evening. This video is of a cool jet ski trip my uncle Jeff did.

The best part of the river trip was being able to take Haydn on his first jet ski ride. HE LOVED IT. This video is a couple min long and mostly for posterity so if you really don't care you don't have to watch. I took Haydn out on the jet ski and you can't even see the cutest part because he is saying "Yeah!" over and over and tossing his hands in the air with it sometimes too. He is such a cutie...and a daredevil as we already know!

Texas/ Arizona Adventure!

We just got back from an amazing trip to Texas and Arizona. We flew to TX to see Scott's mom, Kelly (his sister) and her kids. We had a fun couple days there then decided to drive to Tucson to see his brother Luke and his wife Melinda and their baby Isabella too. It was a long drive, especially since there were 8 of us in a 7 seater van and I got to sit on the floor the whole way, but well worth it to get all of us together at once! We spent a couple days in Tucson and got some good family pictures. All the girls got their nails done, compliments of the oh so talented Meli! It was great! Back in TX, after a quick recovery from our overnight driving, we spent about 4 days straight at Sea World and loved every minute of it. Connor and Ayla were best buddies and they were both barely tall enough to ride some really fun roller coasters and water rides. They both really loved the river rides and had a knack for getting SOAKED on it. It was so fun to ride some roller coasters again and fly down slides in inner tubes too! Nana was a life saver watching Haydn and Trayte sometimes while Scott, Kelly and I got to take the big kids to do the big rides. That's definitely the way to do a theme park. We got to feed dolphins, watch Shamu, Sea Lions, and water skiers perform. The water park was a great hit as well as a way to stay cool in the Texas heat! The best part about the trip was just getting to be with Scott's family and get to know them better! We hope it happens again more often. A big thanks to Luke, Meli, Susan and Kelly for letting us crash your homes and play with you guys!

ALL DONE!!!

Just so you all know...SCOTT FINISHED THE BAR! We can't believe it is all over. It seems like yesterday he started law school. As of Thursday, July 31st, he was DONE. Hopefully forever! We won't know until October if he passed or not, crazy huh! Congratulations to the most amazing man! I love you tons! We have a great Texas vacation coming up we are really excited about where we will get to see his family. We are looking forward to having a lot more time with him these days!

Haydn's Words

I was trying to get Haydn to show off his talking a little for the camera for the other day. He cooperated a little but mostly was just being silly and cute. Here's a video of this cutie. Sorry it's a little long, I have a hard time putting my camera down because my kids are the most adorable things in the whole world.

Wii

For Scott's law school graduation the kids and I got him a Wii. It has been well loved ever since! Our favorite game is Mario Kart. Even Haydn loves it as you can see!

Visit With Family

Yesterday we had the privilege of having my grandparents and some of my cousins (Victoria, Kylie, Melody and Jason) visit. We took them to the sprinkler park and had a blast. Scott had the kids doing all kinds of endurance challenges (the water is ice cold)! Connor had such fun with them--especially Jason. When we put him to bed we explained to him that they were leaving in the morning he broke down in tears and said, "I don't want Jason to go, he's my best friend!" It was so nice to have visitors!

Teddy Bear Picnic

Last night we went to a Teddy Bear Picnic at our local community center. It was great! We ate our picnic and they provided ice cream for everyone. There was a man that did an awesome job with music and dancing for the kids. Both Connor and Haydn were totally into the music and we dancing and doing all the moves with the guy! I was so sad I forgot my camera but we got a good picture of Connor and his batman face paint(this was the first time he's actually wanted to get his face painted and he even let them do it over his eyes--what a kid!)


CHEESE! With their teddy bears!

Eating Adventures

Haydn has recently decided that he can feed himself. He's actually very good at using a spoon or fork and getting food into his mouth (with the grace of a one year old, of course). The video was taken a few weeks ago and is the epitome of how meals are at our house. My small children love playing while eating (I'm sure yours are angels with perfect manners). Today, Haydn thought of a faster way to eat his yogurt. It was very effective as well as super cute!