Adam and Heather Hayes

I really thought we didn't have anything exciting to write about, but today I realized that I'm doing this blog so I can have a history of our family.  So if every entry isn't that exciting to you, I'm sorry, but it's information I want to remember.

I need to remember my first time calling Poison Control, which happened last night.  My sweet little two year old Viola has learned to use chairs and stools to climb onto tables, counter tops, pianos, and anywhere else we thought was a "safe place."  She climbed onto the bathroom counter and grabbed an Air Wick scented oil with fan refill and sucked on the wick like it was a straw.

She started bawling and ran to me.  She smelled very strongly like Harvest Orchard oil and said she needed a drink.  We gave her lots of water to drink and Poison Control said we probably gave her too much to drink which might make her throw up, which might get in her lungs, which might give her pneumonia, which might start an infection, but most likely she would be fine.   Which she is, just fine today, didn't even wet the bed after all that water before bed.

She is definitely in the terrible twos though.  She has to do everything her way. Don't even think about helping her out of the car.  She fell flat on her face at my mom's house a couple weeks ago getting out of the SUV by herself and skinned her forehead and nose. I had to cancel her picture appointment that week.  Since Erith and Tric are at school five days a week, Vi has 2 less sets of eyes to watch her.  She  is quite the adorable trouble-maker!  She is communicating so much better though.  She says simple sentences and knows how to count to 13 in English and 6 in Spanish.  She can say the ABC's pretty clearly and knows the color red.  She can play several games on the Ubuntu computer that Adam set up for the girls to play on. She knows who's turn it is for family prayer which we do by order of birthday! Crazy huh!

Erith lost her fourth tooth last week.  She has lost 3 on bottom and 1 on top with two more quite loose.  She can read quite a few books and verses of scripture without any help now.  She knows how to change Clara's diaper and draws and prints picutures on the kid computer nearly every day. (We had to give her a paper limit per day recently.)  She is taking piano lessons and doing quite well, when she practices!

Tricity is quite the social butterfly.  I hear story after story about all the kids in her kindergarten class when she gets home.  She loves to help me cook.  She likes to draw and play on the computer as well.   She is quite good at remembering to practice the piano.  She is doing great at school and has helped me find homes for 10 of our 19 kittens.  (You heard me right, 19!)

Clara is jabbering a lot and she seems like a permanant hip ornament on me.  She is definately a momma's girl.  She laughs when Vi or I entertain her.  She rolls like crazy but is not wanting to crawl or sit up on her own much. She is eating lots of new foods and seems to never get full.  She's very cute and sweet and I love her a lot.

Adam's business is picking up again, it usually does right before year end.  His brother is working for us in the evenings so Adam's challenge is to NOT stay in the office from morning till 11 at night.  He got to meet Dallin H. Oaks when his stake presidency got replaced, that was cool.  He likes the boys in his scout group really well, they are going swimming tonight.

I have been crocheting baby booties for humanitarian newborn kits.  I am still quite slow and have a lot of mistakes, but they keep Clara's feet warm, so I'm sure they are good enough.  I have lots of Primary stuff to do before the end of the year and I help a lady I visit teach quite often, and the PTSO have something they want at least once a month.  I just keep busy without a whole lot to show for it.  It's kind of frustrating, but I hope I'm making a difference.  Adam and I are going on a date this week if it kills us!  It's been about a month.  Between his schedula and mine, there's never a free night.  I really want to do a session at the Rexburg Temple, I haven't done one there yet.  We're still in the Idaho Falls temple district.   Have a great day!

Adam has a small assortment of songs he plays on the piano really well.  Our girls alway request "The Charlie Brown Song" and they dance and dance to it. 

Adam set the camera on the piano bench and then started playing it so we could capture this cute pastime.  The dance is different every time, and usually all 4 girls are upstairs, to join in.

Sorry for the delay in entries, but there really hasn't been much to say! I pretty much stay inside out of the below zero temperatures and get bored, day after day! Erith's school has been canceled twice due to cold temperatures. We have had some get togethers with friends that have broken up the monotony nicely. I have a cross stitch for the baby I should be finishing, a quilt that needs tied, and piles of scrapbooking I should be doing. But alas, January has sucked the motivation out of me. February please warm up my ambition! We are all doing fine and shouldn't complain so please don't give this blog too much credit!

Vi is trying to talk more. Adam is getting quite good at his piano playing. Erith is loving school and doing great. Tricity is doing Erith's homework again after she brings it home and learning a lot. I am reading Finding Peace, Happiness, and Joy by Richard G. Scott. I like it a lot, it's very good for my state of mind right now.

We hope you are all healthy and happy, have a great day!

• A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
• B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
• C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

1. 10 Years ago (1997/1998)
1. I had just finished working at the auto parts warehouse
2. I went into the MTC on Jan 31st, 1997 (my amazing new years party consisted of going to bed at either 9:30 or 10:30 (can't remember)
3. I was back in my on and off again relationship with McKenzie Adamson.
4. I took my first airplane ride. After 15 hours on the plane the novelty wore off.
5. Spent most of 1998 living on two islands off the coast of Korea.
2. 5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Clean up after our New Year's Eve Party with Daniel and Darcy Lundquist
2. Finish the box that the heater in my office sits on andand carpet it so it blends with the office.
3. Clean the new office
4. Finish some odds and ends on websites that I'm working on
5. Relax and try to catch some football
3. 5 snacks I enjoy:
1. My wife's chocolate chip cookie dough (and the cookies too)
2. Reeces Peanut Butter Cups
   
3. White Chocolate anything
4. Cinnamon Bears
5. Ice Cream
4. 5 things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Build my parents a new house
2. Build a new High School for Ririe with two really nice gyms
3. Visit Korea with my family
4. Spend a lot more time reading and studying things I'm interested in learning about (art, painting, wood working, volleyball, etc)
5. Spend lots of time having fun with my family
5. 3 of my bad habits:
1. Taking on too many projects
2. Messy (just look at my desk compared to the rest of the house)
3. I get bored with the same old same old so finishing big projects becomes tedious
6. 5 places I have lived:
1. Ririe, ID
2. Kojedo, South Korea
3. Youngdo, South Korea
4. Milyang, South Korea
5. Idaho Falls, Idaho
7. 5 jobs I have had:
1. Lawn Mower
2. Truck Driver (small auto parts truck, not big rigs)
3. Professor's Assistant
4. Webmaster
5. Business Owner
8. 5 things people don't know about me:
1. (Excluding my parents) I attribute a lot of what I've become today to my high school coach, Coach Gardner
2. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from BYU-Idaho with a 4.0 GPA
3. I coach one of the club volleyball teams for Ririe
4. I took piano lessons for 5+ years when I was young and can still play a little (I have 7-10 songs that I can play quite well, but I can't sit down and sight read a song)
5. I still get together with my high school buddies once a month
9. People I tag:
1. I'll list them when I get a list together... (I have to run...)
   

Where have I been the last month?  Well, I have been canning like crazy, and I've read all NINE Work and the Glory books.  It's amazing how into them I got.  I pretty much forgot that I had a blog, e-mail, a life...  Volleyball season is in full swing and so Adam goes to as many of those games as he can. 

Erith and Tricity have started piano lessons and they seem to be doing quite well. 

Adam has been building a new swingset/playtoy thing that we are pretty excited about.  I was just going to buy a kit and have him put it together, but he convinced me to let him design it himself.  It's about 2/3rds done now.  We've had the money to do it set aside since Spring but  he hasn't had time to do it till now.  If any of you haven't noticed, (haha) the economy is amazingly slow right now, so he has some time.

Erith and Tric had a nice stick fight a couple weeks ago and Tric got hit one inch from her eye with a big stick.  It was very ugly and Tric got tired of answering all the questions about it.  My mom gave us some magic bruise cream and it worked wonders on her black eye, thank goodness!

Vi is talking really well the last month.  She starts each day saying "Dora, Boots, Peese Mom" and ending each day the exact same way.  We have one Dora movie and I really think I could quote it from memory.

Clara is eating some baby cereal and other baby foods now, it seems to be helping her unquenchable hunger, yay!  She has turned into quite the Mommy's girl lately.  I'm flattered that she loves me so much, but wow, is it ever hard to get things done around here one handed.

We are doing quite well and we hope you all are doing well despite our economy.

Clara is growing up so fast lately.  She has 2 bottom teeth, she crawls, she says Dadda a lot, she can open the doors on our entertainment center and pull all the stuff out, she is using a spoon a little bit on her own, she jabbers, gets into whatever is left on the floor or couch and last but not least puts her hand into the 5 gallon bucket of catfood and eats a few each day. 

Poor Tric, she has a kind of morning routine of doing a puzzle or two first thing in the morning.  She started out with 24 piece puzzles, now she does 50 and 100 piece puzzles. But she has to be quick, as soon as Clara gets out of her crib, not even an open package of chips on the floor will keep her from those puzzles.

Vi is now a big sister who doesn't like her little sister getting into her "stuff". She won't call Clara by her name, she calls her "Baby".  She constantly runs up to me and says "Oh no Mom, Baby touching it". Vi likes to draw and color and tends to leave her coloring pages and crayons (or writing utensils) on the kitchen floor, so naturally Clara usually has a pencil or pen in her mouth.

The other day I left Vi with a coloring book and some crayons while I went to pick up Erith and Tricity from piano lessons.  (Adam works from home, so I don't leave them alone) When I walked in Vi was looking nervous and said "Baby did it" it took me a minute to see that our TV was covered in crayon scribbling and Clara was on the floor holding a crayon.  Clara can't put herself to standing quite yet and even if she could, her arm couldn't reach the top of the TV where there was plentiful scribbling.  It was so funny to me.  She really thought she'd framed Clara beyond a doubt. (You can see why I'm hesitant to put in an LCD TV in there)

Yesterday Vi was being quiet, almost all day long... She is really into this art thing lately.  She got into Clara's dry formula and was making sand drawings all over the kitchen countertops one of the times. The other time she was making lotion fingerpaintings all over a green plastic storage tub in her bedroom. Gotta love age 2. We always call Viola Vi, so today I told her that her whole name was Viola Pearl Hayes.  She said "No mom, I'n not Viowa Pol, I'n Vi" She talks so well now, it's cute.

For those of you who don't know, Viola is my Grandma Quinn's Mom's name and Clara is my Grandpa Quinn's Mom's name.  They really have a connection with each other.  They get each other laughing all the time.  Vi does something silly like hits herself on the head with a flyswatter and gets Clara laughing then that make Vi laugh. Some toys that Vi refuses to share with the older kids she happily shares with Clara.  They even share my lap pretty well now.  They used to try to push the other off.  I'm hoping they'll be best friends forever.

Clara is officially one now.  I can't believe my newborn fresh from the hospital baby is one already. 

She is jabbering and screaming a lot now, no quiet time here anymore.  She's taking a step or two but no serious walking yet. 

She is so cute and curious.  She can climb out of her high chair onto the tray, and climb completely out of her walker.  She loves climbing from the recliner to the piano bench and lately, standing on the keys!  Trouble!

Clara opened Tric's gift early right after an ug Mom got back from walking and lifting weights.  They were cute socks Tric bought from the dollar store with her own money. We waited till our late cake and ice cream party to open the rest.  We had an extended party the next day with the Purser side.

I saved since the beginning of the year to take off for Spring Break and go to Disneyland, and we did it!

Day 1: We left Friday and drove to Layton to get a recalled wiper motor replaced on our SUV.  Then we drove to Salt Lake and had a delicous barbecue at Bethany and Eric's house.  The adults played settlers and pinnochle while the kids fell asleep to a movie in the livingroom.

In the morning we had a scruptious hot breakfast, played a few songs on their piano, (Thanks Eric and Bessy! You're awesome!)

opened some birthday presents and then hit the open road.  10 hours of it,

thank goodness for portable DVD players and books, that is a lot of driving.  We gained an hour when we got to LA, and the power had been off all day and came back on just before we got there.  That was lucky!

So we drove all Day 2, Day 3: went to church with Adam's uncle Ryal, aunt Cory, and cousins Andrew and Evie, and had a barbecue and egg hunt with their local extended family. It was a fun day and I didn't even think to take a picture of it. Nice.  Day 4: we went to the beach.  It started off beautiful and sunny.  These first pictures are the "Before Adam almost drown" pictures.

Adam and Andrew were having a great time body surfing until Adam got caught in a riptide and kept getting sucked back into the ocean.  He swam and swam and swam, but was not getting any closer to the beach.

He tried swimming parallel to the beach but that just took him farther away from me and not any closer to the beach. 

So he called for help and Andrew pulled him in to where he could touch.  I was quite worried by now, and was very happy to see Adam stumbling up the beach to me.  He was in shock.  He asked for any drink that did not contain salt.

I gave him a Capri Sun, he drank some of it, then layed down and didn't move for quite a while.  Then all of a sudden he flipped over and started puking sea water.  I realized how tramatic it really was for him at that point.  I covered him up with all the towels and clothes we had, and let him rest for a couple of hours.

While he was resting, the girls and Andrew and I had a fun time.  Two sand castles were made,

One closer to the ocean than the other.  This first one was too far away to fill the mote with water before it sunk in.

Tons of shells were collected.

White bodies soaked in some sun.

Some bodies were whiter than others.  I do have olive skin like Erith and Tric, I just don't wear a bathing suit very much.  You'll see later that poor Vi has Adam's white freckley skin, we don't know about Clara yet.

Little girls made memories.  This is Clara's first time on a beach.  Vi's first time getting wet on a beach.

I noticed Andrew and Vi had been standing in one spot for quite a while, I walked over and Vi said "Look Mom my feet are gone!"

It was fun to stand right at the edge of the water and feel yourself sink after each wave.  She loved it so much, she and Andrew stood there for almost an hour.  Andrew got a bad sunburn for that one.

When it got close to her knees she started to chicken out, mostly because the water was splashing her face.

We were happy to see Adam back to normal after his nap and some lunch.  Evie and her friend Jerica joined us after a while to do some sunbathing.

Look at all these cuties at the beach.  I thought I had sunscreened everyone head to toe.  But alas, it became apparent that I had missed a couple spots on Vi when I put her in the bath that night.

A word to the wise, don't scrunch your nose while applying sunscreen.  And don't be overly cautious about getting it in the eyes.

Oops!