International Harvester

...is Hayden's favorite song. I even downloaded it to my iPod so he could listen to it. He knows most of the words and it's too adorable not to share. Notice that he calls it "international harm-ester".

Relay for Life

Wow! That word pretty much sums up my experience with Relay for Life. I was lucky enough to participate in the event this past weekend with a good friend and her family. This family has been battling cancer for the past several years and I was honored to join their team!

I wasn't sure what to expect when joining but was up for the challenge to walk, cook, and sell from 5:00pm Friday night until 5:00am Saturday morning to raise funds and awareness for the American Cancer Society. I cannot begin to tell you the emotions I felt while looking around at all the survivors (wearing purple shirts) and the support from the community. Awesome!!!!

The relay started with the opening ceremony in which the Survivors walked the first lap. This was the first of many tears for me that night. It was amazing to see these strong people!





The second lap was with the Survivors and their caregivers....next set of tears for me :)



This was our tent. We sold "walking tacos", drinks, and ACS/Relay for Life items.


Our bean bag toss area

After the first 2 laps, they called out teams and we walked the field with our banners.

This is Amie and my reason for participating. Our husbands have been best friends since early in high school. Amie and I became friends when she started dating her husband. It is her family that has had to battle cancer and whose team I joined/supported. Amie was diagnosed with breast cancer in March. She has a 3 year old, Connor (in the bean bag picture) and an almost 1 year old, Blake. She has a heart of gold!!! I am honored to be her friend as she has such an optimistic outlook on her battle which makes it so easy to be positive with her!

This is the luminaria ceremony. All the bags were lit and the lights cut off....another teary moment.

Amie's bag

After most of the public left, we played games throughout the night to stay awake and to keep people walking. I walked from 10pm to 11pm and then again from 3pm to 4pm. At midnight, we cranked up the generator and started cooking bacon egg cheese sandwiches. So yummy! There is nothing like the smell of bacon to bring in the masses. They sold like hot-cakes!!!

At 4:30am, we closed up shop and headed home. I was in bed by 5am but soon woke up at 7 with the sun. I somehow forced myself back to sleep many times and finally got up at 12:30pm. My body was sore and felt like I had a hang over. This 31 year old body doesn't recover from all-nighters very well anymore but it was totally worth it.

Our booth was very successful. We are still able to take donations so if you'd like to contribute, please follow this link. Thank you in advance for the support!!!

http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09National?px=11067294&pg=personal&fr_id=15075

Zoo & Chuck E. Cheese

On Hayden's actual birthday, we took him to the zoo and had his first experience at Chuck E. Cheese. He had a blast!

Chuck E. Cheese

Grandma Bev cheering Hayden on in Skee-Ball. He was a pro at it. He even had a nice side-arm tactic that won him MANY tickets!

The grandpa's and Brian got caught up in some military-type game. It took forever to tear them away!

It is so hard to believe that my baby is now 4. He is so independent (on most things). Some nights he doesn't even want us to tuck him in *sigh*. His vocabulary has such a range that sometimes I'm very surprised. He has learned a new tactic that we are breaking very quickly - back talking! Very annoying but definately a stage that he is going thru.

Hayden is also very affectionate right now. This is a nice change as he's not normally that way. He likes to sit in daddy's lap at night before going to bed. It is absolutely adorable to watch. This past year has brought minor "boo boos" which is to be expected for a child that bounces off the walls :) All in all, it has been a great year for Hayden and we look forward to seeing what this next year brings!

Hayden's 4th Birthday

His cake that Noona made.


Bakugan cake

Birthday boy.

Noona and Hayden

Kids waiting for cake

Opening presents

Pinata time...

Grace's turn

Connor's turn

Addison's turn

Uncle Justin helping Bryson

CANDY!!!!!

Mother's Day

Catching Up

I've taken a bit of a break from blogging since December. It seems that I have spent so much time behind the camera that I've not been truly enjoying watching Hayden grow. He is at a point where there really isn't many "new" things that he's doing but more of what he is saying. He is enjoying being a kid!

Here are some pictures to catch you up a bit.

Fall 2008

Christmas 2008

(Christmas Eve at Grandma & Grandpa's house)

What Santa left for Hayden

This face is PRICELESS

New Year's Eve with the Estes

Brian and Joseph boxing on the Wii

Hayden and Grace pretend boxing

Silly faces

Future Prom picture

NWTF February 2009




March 2009

April 2009

Helping Noona and Poppa outside

Relay for Life

It is sad that in today's world, we are hearing about cancer more and more frequently. After watching a friend's family endure the cancer battle, I am now witnessing her fight the same. I have joined the Relay for Life with the American Cancer Society and will participate in the walk on June 5-6.


Please join me in the fight against cancer by following the link below. Every amount counts! Thank you for your support.



http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09National?px=11067294&pg=personal&fr_id=15075

Build-A-Bear

Over the weekend while at our local "mega mall", Hayden made his first "build-a-bear" and had a great time. He picked a Panda bear, helped stuff it, picked out clothes and then named him. He is very much into action figures right now so it was no surprise that he chose the Spiderman outfit and named him Spider Panda... Too cute!!!

Home-made Crayons

I came across a great idea for all of those broken crayons that seem to pile up at our house - make new crayons! Basically, you peel the crayons, place in a cooking tin that you don't mind not using again, bake on 200 for 18 minutes, cool, and voila! This was something that Hayden loved doing. To make these as gifts, I bought dollar store crayons and let Hayden break them up and decide what colors to go where. Great way to get them involved. Here are some pictures of the process.

Before baking...

After baking while cooling...

Voila!

Fun

I found this cute site where you enter your blog and it scans the words and creates this out of the most commonly used words. I love it.

Addie's Birthday

Hayden's cousin, Addison, turned 3 on November 15th and we partied hard (well, as hard as a 3 year old can party). She had a princess themed party with invitations made by yours truly.
All of the kids played and had a great time. Aunt Lacey did a great job with the cupcakes and snacks! Addison was so excited to open gifts. This girl got lots of loot!!! Here are a few pictures to capture the essence of being 3 and watching your "Grandpa" put together your pink "darbie" (not barbie, but darbie, as explained by Addie to me) horse with wings.




After presents and cake was the pinata! Boy can those kids swing a bat!!!

Here's Grandma playing with the birthday girl...

Bryson playing with girl toys. Hang on buddy, boy toys are coming your way!



Birthday girl with the darbie horse.


A tired Uncle Justin in his princess hat.

Overall, a great time was had by all! Happy Birthday little girl!!!!!

Everyone has a job

Hayden has a standing tradition of being the designated candle blowing helper on birthdays. Here's the evidence of our latest birthday...

The cake was great (made by Noona) and I'm sure everyone enjoyed a little slice of Hayden with each piece :)

Hello...Hello...Anyone still there?

We are alive, contrary to our absence in the blogging world. It's been rather crazy and not a whole lot going on at the same time. Hayden is pretty much at the age that it's what he says that is so amazing rather than what he does. Being 3 1/2 is hard business! Some of my favorite things he says...

Hayden: "Mom, I'm going to sleep in my belly tonight."
Translation: Mom, I don't want to sleep in my jammies tonight, just my underwear.

Hayden: "I'm going to punk"
Translation: I'm going to hit you (nice, I know)

Hayden (getting undressed for bath time and his shirt caught on his head): "Mom, this is my long hair"

Hayden: "My bottom popped."
Translation: Gas (lovely I know but he thinks it's hilarious)

Hulk Hands & the Atkins' Zoo

We had a busy weekend with lots of fun! To start it off, Hayden and I went to the Jump Zone on Saturday with Justin, Addison and Bryson so that the kids could run some energy off. They loved it!!!

On Sunday, Hayden got a surprise from Brian - Hulk Hands!!! You would have thought it was his birthday or Christmas - he's that excited about them. He had a good time playing "hulk muscles", as he calls it, with Brian. He loves that they make noise when you hit them on something or just swing them. I tried to play with him last night and he told me that I couldn't because I was a girl and that only boys can play with them. Hilarious!!!

After a few hours with the "hulk muscles", we had lunch with Brian's family at the Catfish House to celebrate his grandmother's birthday and then went to Uncle Mike's zoo to look at the new animals added.

Arthur, the camel, has grown so much from last year.

They have a new little big as the other one has gotten bigger. The kids enjoyed chasing him around and hearing him squeal.


We also saw goats, emus, turkeys, peacocks, a llama and little donkeys (mom & son).