Football Season

I've been ready for the fall for awhile now. Dallas set a record for the number of consecutive days that were over 100 degrees. Ugh. Today we went on a little walk though, and it was COOL! I could've put socks on my baby! With the fall comes football, which is so fun (as long as BYU and the Cowboys are winning). So far we've had some devastating losses, but we have hope for the next games! Hazel actually likes to watch football sometimes. This isn't the first time she has sported her BYU cheerleading uniform, but it actually fits her now. Aunt Natalie made her 2 cute BYU bows that will be used as pigtail bows ASAP! Her hair is growing quickly!

Jones and Hazel are so cute together. I think they look like brother and sister, but their mommas don't look a bit alike!

We also went to our nephew Austin's high school football game. He's a senior at Centennial, which is crazy because I feel like I was just a senior in high school! It was perfect weather for the game and we had a great time! Hazel especially loved the half time show. She even did a little dance for us.

Here she is with Grandma Palmer and Aunt Tami.

Waco Family Reunion

The whole Hayes clan gathered in Waco to celebrate all the August and September birthdays in our family. Hannah and Isaac already had a joint birthday party planned at the Waco water park, so we all partied there! Hazel loved the lazy river and being in her float.

Sometimes her legs get stuck in the float...

How cute are these two?

Here's sweet Miles!

Other than the issue of Hazel loudly resisting naptime, the weekend was lots of fun and relaxing. There were so many new things to look at and cousins to play with that Hazel hardly required entertainment from me.

Here's Cerra with Faith and Hazel. She's always willing to pick them up and help out!

Isaac is a total rough tough boy, so I think it's cute how sweet he is with Hazel.

We went to the children's museum while we were there and saw the Egyptian exhibit, which was great. I loved it because it reminded me of teaching 6th grade. Plus, Ancient Egypt has always intrigued me. We thought it'd be pretty cool if we could all fit on the camel for a picture... Success!


Our family also decided to do a little different activity this time. Each family member was supposed to choose a topic that we're passionate about and to share it with the rest of the family. We got the idea from our cousins' family reunion. It was fun to have a designated time for each of us to really get into something we love or think a lot about. We may have talked about these topics casually over the weekend, but we wouldn't have had a designated time to go in depth about it. I chose something related to cooking, of course! I demonstrated how to bake a delicious chocolate chip cookie. I think my topic was pretty popular because I had samples. =) Nat told us how to play Bunco, and we played that for our game night; Matt and Kylene joined together on theirs and related a little botany to spiritual life lessons; Angie educated us about sugar and how it's pretty much poison (that was hard to listen to after mine!), Dane talked to us about emergency preparedness, Mom talked about food storage and gave us all wheat grinders (awesome!), Jeff shared his thoughts on family, Dad shared a video and story about a family friend's miracle, and James talked about Dave Ramsey's book, Total Money Makeover. The kids participated by sharing one of their talents or interests. It was awesome! I bet this isn't the last time we'll do this as a family. Thanks, Nat and Jeff, for letting us trash your house all weekend! We had a blast! Next get-together - October 28th for the BYU vs. TCU game at the Cowboys' Stadium!

New Little Friends

In addition to Miles, we've made two more new friends these past few months -- Hailyn Malouf and Jaxon Robinson! Cutie pies! Hazel doesn't know how to react to them at this point, but I know that later they'll be great friends. Hazel is very happy and social, but she's also a bit rough so we have to watch her carefully when she's around babies. We're so excited to have new playmates! Congrats to Ben and Bri and to Shayla and Scott on your new little ones!

Hailyn and Hazel (Doesn't that sound cute?)

I'm holding sweet little Jax.

Our Little Girl

We can hardly get enough. Hazel is just growing up too fast! She's a little over 10 months, which means we're not far from her 1st birthday. Sad. My little baby is pulling up and trying to climb up on everything! I'm impressed by how fast she can crawl to get to something she wants (ie. food or other little people). She doesn't let me out of her sight very long, but it's kind of cute that she wants to be at my feet... literally. She'd rather I hold her all day, but a 23 lb. baby gets heavy after awhile. Sometimes I try to sneak in the other room quickly to get a drink or something, but she always knows... pretty soon I hear a pitter patter on the floor as she speed crawls after me. The best is when I'm at the stove or sink and she pulls up and pushes her head between my legs so I can't move anywhere. She's a determined little baby who knows what she wants! The best thing that's happened this past month is we're all getting good sleep! A full night's sleep feels AMAZING!! I still rock her for her naps and nighttime, but I try not to do it until she's completely out. It's hard to completely let that go. I don't know that I'll be able to do that with another child, so I'll hold on to that until she doesn't want to be rocked anymore. The only problem is Hazel's getting a little big to cuddle on me. I'll make it work though!

Here's one of my favorite pictures of her recently. How we didn't end up with that bear in our cart as we left, I don't know.

One of the first things she crawled up on was her little rocking chair that used to be her Grandma Palmer's.

Here's Hazel with some of her cousins -- other little people like herself! She loves them!

The only show on TV that Hazel has noticed is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She bounces when she hears the song. I don't mind a little Disney in my day!

I painted Hazel's toes for the first time in her high chair. It was a challenge but worth it!

One of Hazel's favorite things to do is to take a bath. Her cousin Ty let her have his bath seat, so now she can sit up in the tub!

We love going to the library for Rhyme Time, but Hazel's favorite thing is bubbles.
The Basil's hair is getting thicker and longer and sometimes when she wakes up from a nap, it's a wee bit curly at the ends. How cute is her bob?


Like her mama, her favorite thing is food. She loves feeding herself and making a huge mess! Now that she has 4 visible teeth (2 on top, 2 on bottom), it's so cute to hear the crunch when she eats.

Birthday Boy!

My man finally caught up to me! He's 27, too! James got Friday and Monday off for his birthday (his actual b-day was Tuesday though), so we enjoyed a long weekend together. It's so fun to have him home during the day, and I know Hazel loves seeing her daddy more too. For his main birthday celebration, we went to the new Top Golf in Allen and had a blast! Shayla was my girl company, so we just chatted and ate while we cheered on the boys. It's a fun atmosphere, and I think everyone had a great time! Then some of us went to James's parents' for some pool ball and cookie cake, which tasted better than it looked (I'm talking about my decorations). Thank you, Emeril, for a yummy recipe! This is the recipe, but I just used chocolate chips instead of all the other toppings. James loooves a good chocolate chip cookie, so what's better than a giant chocolate chip cookie for his birthday?! On Monday, my sister-in-law Tami watched Hazel while we went to see the last Harry Potter movie. We loved it! Then for dinner, we went to Benihana with my in laws since we had 2 free birthday dinners! I thought Hazel would be scared of the experience, but she did great! Here's a little photo report:

Top Golf Group
(I wasn't trying to be artsy with this photo... my camera messed it up.)

James's birthday gift - a Kindle.

Baby Miles!

I can't believe how long it's taken me to blog about my newest, sweetest, handsomest nephew! It's probably because I've been reading during most of my free time... The Count of Monte Cristo sucked me in! I recommend it to anyone looking for a good book that has it all. Anyway, a few short weeks ago, my sister Angie had her first baby! She was scheduled for a C section because Miles decided he didn't want to turn head down. I think he heard how Hazel got a lot of attention for not turning until several weeks before, so he thought he'd take the cake and stay put sideways. Everything went well for the delivery, but poor Ang didn't get to see Miles for many hours while they were checking up on him. Luckily, he was okay and just needed a little time to adjust to his new world, so Angie got to snuggle him from that time on... and she hasn't stopped. It was so cute to see her as a mom. I always knew she loved babies, and it was so great to see how thrilled she was to have a little one of her own. Miles was so little (compared to Hazel) and so sweet! I wish I could've been there for when she left the hospital, but we had been away from James long enough. I guess I'll just have to go back for a visit soon! Austin is only 3 1/2 hours away! Here's the handsome man - MILES MATTHEW JANSSON

Let Freedom Ring

This 4th of July was spent in Beaumont with my parents. It's pretty rare that we're the only ones in the family visiting my parents at one time, but we weren't complaining about having all the attention! Hazel sure loved it too! She just loves the pool and kicks constantly while in her little float (just like in the womb...). It was so fun just to be able to relax, swim, read, and hang out with my parents. That's what kind of vacation James and I enjoy. The only thing we missed were live fireworks on the 4th because of the dry weather, but Mom and I watched them on TV!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Hazel met her great grandparents on my side for the first time! We brought meals on wheels, as Grandpa called it, and had dinner while talking about people we know who have served our country. I always love hearing Grandpa talk about his brother Uncle Tini who served in the military so his brothers wouldn't have to. He was shot while he was in the service, and the bullet went through his face, but he survived. When he came home, however, his own brother didn't recognize him. In fact, his brother offered to give this man (Uncle Tini) a ride to where he needed to go, and he didn't know it was his brother until Uncle Tini said, "Don't you know I'm your brother?" It's an amazing story. I'm so grateful for the people who are willing to serve our country. It's so great to know those families will be reunited soon.

My childhood best friend, Emily, was in town, so we got together with our moms for lunch!

I also got to see my dear cousin Sabrina (that's her title) before she moves to the east coast for her husband to go to law school! Sad. Hopefully they move back to Texas right after he's done! I need her close!

Here's one more goofy picture of Hazel in red, white, and blue: