Hayden's first Photo Shoot (Finally!!)

January 1, 2010

Hayden was 1 1/2 weeks old

My friend Jess, who is extremely talented, took pictures of Hayden for our baby gift from her (What an awesome gift, right!?). I am not posting them until now because our CD drive on our computer decided to give up the ghost and all of Hayden's pics were on a CD. But I have them now and am so excited to post them. THANKS JESS!!

Our Three Year Old

Since Carter's birthday is 4 days earlier than Hayden's, we decided to get his 3 yr-old pictures done at the same time.

Our Family

Big Brother and Baby Sister

Mom and Dad with Baby Hayden

Hayden's Birth Announcement

Pony Tails, Go Fish, and Finger Tricks

First Pony Tail

This is Hayden's first pony tail. You can't see it too well, but there is a little pony at the top with curly hair. I loved showing off the pony. She looked so cute!

Go Fish

Currently, Go Fish is Carter's favorite game. Yes, something finally beat out Candyland.

In this first video it starts out with Carter playing Go Fish then shows Matt's latest thing he has been teaching our child, "Pull my Finger." Why oh why does Carter need to learn that trick at home? There will be plenty of boys at school that would love to teach him that. But no, now Carter will be the one to teach all the other boys. Oh Daddy!

And the Legacy continues...



Though I am disturbed that we are teaching our child such things, I can't help but laugh when Carter wonders, "Why it didn't make me tooted, Dad?"

On to better things... Like one of our last Family Home Evenings we had. This is Carter singing to our song we sang with our lesson. We were talking about being grateful for our bodies so we sang, "If You're Happy and You Know It" because those are all actions we can do because we have bodies. Hayden got in on the act, too.



Carter loves being a Big Brother. This is a scene from our house several times a day:

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today on the Ides of March is my Mother's Birthday and possibly to her dismay I want to dedicate this whole post to her and her incredible qualities.

First off, she is great with her grandchildren. After I gave birth to Hayden my mom came out to be with us for a whole 10 days!! This was a huge sacrifice from her because she has a job and two kids still living at home along with my Dad. But she never made an issue of that. While she was here she helped so much with the kids. She read SO SO SO many books to Carter. His favorite were the books about Bats (he has a love/hate relationship with bats). Carter still tells me things that he learned about bats from those books. She also did lots of puzzles and worked on ABCs, etc. And Hayden was facinated by Mom from day 1. She hadn't reacted to anyone the way that she had with my Mom. She started to smile and respond, it was so fun to see and I was so glad Mom was here to be a part of it. (see video below to see her interact with the kids). Also, Mom thanks for all the cleaning and wonderful meals.

My Mom is also a real go-getter. I like to think that I developed this quality from her. Family vacations during the summer time were always a big deal to her. She seemed to always start planning a year in advance and by February she had our summers planned out to a T. My siblings and I are very close and have such love for one another and I know it is in big part thanks to these great vacations Mom spent so many hours planning. And don't get me wrong, they weren't big, fancy vacations. A lot of them were in Utah taking advatage of the mountains, lakes and National Parks of the region. But we spent quality time together and that is what matters (plus we had a ton of fun).

Mom is strong in the Gospel. There was never a moment in my life where I wondered whether or not my Mom had a testimony of our Savior. Something that has always lasted in my mind was her telling me in times when I have questioned whether things were right or wrong. She always said why err in being close to the fence. There is always a safe side and that is where she will be at all times. And that is so true. I can't think of one time that she hasn't "held fast" to her beliefs. Unless you count cursing in the middle of Lake Powell so everyone in a 2 mile radius could hear because the stove blew up on her.

For these qualities and so many more, I love you Mom! Happy Birthday!

Big Smiles!

This little girl has seriously stolen my heart!! I never could have dreamed it would be possible to hold so much love in my heart as I have for my two babies. I am one of the luckiest girls in the world to have my incredible husband Matt and my two beautiful children.

I know I have said it before, but I am LOVING these blue eyes!!!

Wink, wink

Check out her blue eyes in this video:

Hayden's Baby Blessing

March 7, 2010

Yesterday we blessed our sweet baby Hayden! For those of you not familiar with a baby blessing here is an explanation written by Matt: The blessing of children is something that is customary in our church for infants. The blessing is analogous to some other Christian churches practice of baptizing or christening infants, however our baptisms occur typically around age 8 for children and anytime in adulthood for converts. Those participating in the blessing circle are ordained holders of the priesthood and I will be performing the act of the blessing itself.

We had a beautiful day afterwards filled with family (Gma Bonnie and Gpa Jay), friends and yummy food. I am so grateful for this beautiful little girl and a wonderful husband worthy to give her this blessing.
Hayden asleep on Grandma at church after her special blessing. She is our little beauty!!

The Blessing Weekend

Gma Bon came out on Thursday to help me prepare for the blessing and Gpa Jay came out Friday night. Here are some pictures of our time together:

Check out those BLUE eyes!! I might get my wish of a blue-eyed baby after all!!

Can I just say... OH MY GOSH!!

We went bowling again and again Carter LOVED it!!

The weather finally got nice enough that we could take a little stroll outside. Hayden was quite amazed by the outdoors but then decided sleeping was even cooler.

Gma and Gpa playing Go Fish with Carter and Daddy watching the BYU basketball game.