Hayes Family Reunion

My dad's parents celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary after Christmas.  Grandpa is 97 and Grandma is 94.  They're such an inspiration to everyone they meet.  To celebrate their anniversary, our family planned our biggest family reunion yet.  The "elders" (Grandma and Grandpa's kids -- that's what we nicknamed them) planned for weeks and several of the grand kids worked out all the details, choreographed, designed t-shirts, arranged food, planned the techie stuff, etc.  It was quite the event.  Grandma got really sick a few days before the reunion, and it was a miracle that she was able to make it.  When Grandma and Grandpa came into the room, all of their posterity was up on the stage getting ready for a family picture.  Only 3 families weren't able to make it.  Grandpa said he had never felt more moved by an experience in his life.  I can't imagine what that would feel like to walk in and see this (see below) - which all started from them.  The amazing thing is that all of the people on the stage came from just 3 children - Aunt Sarah (who has now passed)- 13 kids, my dad- 4 kids, and Aunt Rachel- 8 kids.  They had 2 other children, but their first was a stillborn (Christine), and their youngest died when he was just 8 years old (Spencer).  There are 95 great grandchildren so far and 3 great great grandchildren.   

We started the reunion with dinner (well, it really started with rehearsals a few days before), and then the main event was afterward.  We had video and pictures of Grandma and Grandpa through their childhood, dating, marriage, years of having children, church callings, and their passions later in life.  After each clip, we had a performance by one of the age groups in the Hayes family so that everyone was included.  My cousin Tamra worked tirelessly on the music and choreography, my mom choreographed and accompanied as well, and Aunt Rachel searched every thrift store possible and produced some of the cutest costumes for the kids.  I could tell that all of the cousins had a great time whether they were 2 or 16.  It was a bonding experience for everyone and definitely an event to remember. 

Hazel got to participate in the pageant part of the show, and boy did she love it!  I thought I was going to have to drag her across stage, but when they called her name, she went out with a big smile and held out her arm like she had been on stage a hundred times.  It was awesome.  I gave her a little twirl and she ran off.  Later she found a trophy and some heels, and she didn't mind me taking another picture.  I think we have a diva on our hands!   

The Hayes girls said we would do a Ragtime number on the piano, which fit into the 20's part of the show.  We talked about how we would do it before the performance, but we didn't actually ever play it all together until the real thing!  Risky!  It wasn't perfect, but we had a great time. 

I hope Grandma and Grandpa felt the love we all have for them.  They have been and continue to be the greatest examples of love of life, faith, and family.  I think we Hayeses all agree that we're proud and blessed to be part of their family. 

Christmas in Beaumont

All the Hayes kids were able to get together this year for Christmas at my parents' house.  We keep filling up the house more and more (with kids and the necessary grub), but we still haven't quite outgrown it.  Look at the ridiculous amount of fruit we had lying around, and please note the ginormous basket-

The reason we can all fit in one house is mainly because all of Matt's family stays in ONE room.  Kind of amazing.  It was so great to have everyone there, and luckily, no one got sick... until the last day.  It's kind of inevitable it seems, but at least it didn't get passed around to everyone while we were there.  Mom actually allowed us to help with some of the dinners this time, so each family took a night to cook (although Mom really couldn't help herself and had to pitch in here and there).  Jeff brought his smoker down as well as his cream can cooker.  He smoked a delicious prime rib, and all 12 pounds of it were pretty much gone after one meal.  The cream can cooker was new to me, and it also produced some good tastin' veggies and sausage. Well done, Jeff. You win.

The Palmers went for more of a feed-a-huge-crowd meal-- ham and corn chowder.  Simple but still a hit!  So were our aprons.  James looks thrilled!
 

 

This is where James really shines.  He's such a good helper when it comes to clean up!!!

  

There were lots of fun times behind the table with these 2.  The dogs loved them.

On Christmas Eve we did some of our usual traditions.  We acted out the Nativity, Santa came, and we opened up our Christmas jammies.  Hazel loved being the donkey and loved that her jammies were red.

 

 We're missing Miles because he was already in bed.  My favorite part of this picture is Isaac in his jammies 2 sizes too small.  

Hazel was pretty disinterested in the whole Christmas morning thing, but that was fine with us.  She had a great time watching everyone else!  The gum in the stocking was a big hit for her.  

Here are some more random photos from the week-

Emily and I went to see Shellie, who wasn't feeling well.  Her pregnancy has been really hard on her unfortunately.  The exciting thing is that she's due only a few weeks after I am, and she's having a boy too!

The week of Christmas flew by too quickly, but we managed to have all the fun we could!

It's the Holiday Season

I love Christmas time!  Who doesn't?  Hazel and I have been decorating and listening to Christmas music constantly since Thanksgiving.  This is Hazel's 3rd Christmas, and she can understand a bit more this year, so we tried to do more Christmas-y things and attempted to teach her the real Christmas story.  What I think she got out of all of it was this - Lots of lights, Santa Claus, baby Jesus, soft sheep, donkey costume, Christmas trees, red train, and "Jingle Bells".  I still don't know where she learned "Jingle Bells" because it's not like it played that frequently on Pandora.  It's pretty funny though to hear her sing it with her own additions and omissions -- one time she stayed up during her nap time and just belted it out for about a half hour.  Awesome. 
Some of our holiday festivities included:

James's holiday party

A Favorite Things Party with friends

Our church Christmas party (no go for Santa's lap, just Daddy's)

Nativity play time

The North Pole Express in Grapevine with the Dunnings

 

 Hazel loved riding on the RED train with her cousins and drinking hot chocolate afterward.  Santa even gave her a bell!  Later that week, we watched parts of The Polar Express (some parts are slow for a 2 year old).  We also drove through a neighborhood with tons of lights, and Hazel really enjoyed that, especially with her window down.  

Now on to Beaumont...

Oh BOY!

Hazel is going to be a big sister come April 19th-ish!  We're so excited!  I kind of thought it was a boy, and my second ultrasound at 13 weeks proved that to be true.  I've been extremely hungry this whole pregnancy (like can't-make-it-through-the-night hungry), and I started feeling him move around really early.  He's an active, hungry lil boy!  I'm also growing faster this time around, so we'll see just how far this belly can stretch!  I'm so excited to meet him, but we're not in a hurry.  I've been trying to talk to Hazel about having a little brother, but I'm not so sure she understands what I'm saying.  That, or she's ignoring me.  She refuses to say baby brother is in my tummy; he's in hers.  She doesn't mind babies as long as I'm not the one holding them.  So, this should be interesting.  Hazel's so good with her little dolls and "friends" (stuffed animals) though, so I know that with time, she'll enjoy being a big sister.    

Here's how I told James the news --  I put paper over the circle part of one of his t-shirts and wrote "Baby Daddy" on it. 

 

1st ultrasound pic-

 

Only belly pic thus far - (halfway I think)

20 week ultrasound - very flexible

 

3D shot at 20 weeks- I didn't have one of these last time, and it was pretty neat to see how well developed he is by just halfway.  Amazing.

Nat and Ang have already started passing down the boy stuff, and it's getting me really excited!  Love him so much already.