SNOWDAY!

Here are the Hasek and Manley cousins...in order of height I do believe. Yep, Kaylee, (who barely has a half inch of an advantage), Lindsey, Derek (yep, younger than all but one up there), Becca, Cassi, and Alli. I think Logan and Gracie were absorbed in a movie, or was it the cookies?

Alli and Derek, big second graders this year, cute stuff, huh?

Derek and Logan, just chillin'.

Alli and Becca, havin' some good snow fun.

Well, not a complete snowday, we got out of school at noon because from 9:30 a.m., it snowed HEAVILY! Just the way I like it actually! It was beautiful! So we had the Manley cousins over for lots of fun. The cold did not stop anyone from enjoying the awesome snow, of course not Tank either. Notice the ICE drool when he came back in from a good time outside.

My Sick Day

Here is the precious, and ever more adorable Zackary, with Alli and Grandpa Kevin. I am SO glad to see them again before he's huge and walking and all that crazy stuff! Hilary was actually on her way to their new place near DesMoines, and she is staying a few days with Mom and Dad.

It is quite fun when we know we are seeing them, far before we pull into the driveway, we begin shouting, "I get to hold him first!" And wouldn't ya know it, I am right every time! I am just that fast. You see why we fight over him, he is just too cute, and so happy! Thank you Andy for taking the job transfer! Now, let's just hope they don't all of a sudden leave after being bombarded too much by crazy family!

So I am home sick today, which is not fun at all, although now that I am up, I am finding I can do some things, even while being queasy. So here I am. Hope your week goes well, and mine gets better real quick! There are so many things I could be doing!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This is Amy and Ernie, the girls' new favorite "cousin". I think he was their favorite part of the trip!

We had a nice Thanksgiving trip. This past week we traveled to Las Vegas, got a new car, (a mini-van, not the dream car I was hoping for, but still very nice), had lots of fun with my sister and brother-in-law there in the big city, and drove the new car home! We did and saw many things in just 6 days, and had a great time. Here is just a little of what we encountered.

Hoover Dam - what a sight! This is the new bridge they're building to bypass all of the switchbacks that we currently go through. I personally enjoyed that, but I am sure the new bridge will save tons of time for travelers.

This was at Bojo's, in Winslow, AZ. What a great place to eat! You can see the decor is all about the surrounding wildlife of the area. It was great to see the Hancocks, who served here in Nauvoo probably 10 years ago, and then again recently. It was their son who hooked us up with a great deal on a really nice mini-van. So, the story about my not-so-dream car is this: it broke down just the week before we were to go get it, and after much dismay, I realized I should be grateful it went ka-put on the dealer, and not on us on the way home! It turns out we got an even better deal, and it is really nice!

Here is the "Stone Man", who spends his days making some cash on the streets of Vegas. He was a really great actor, it was very fun to watch him interact with the crowd on the street. He was like a mime, but used noises for his movements, though no words. Very entertaining.

This is the Ex Calibur, where we saw "the Tournament of the Kings" which was amazing! That was the highlight of the Vegas entertainmet for sure. Below was our king, King of Hungary. He did very well in the battle. It was so cool to watch them joust, and ride their horses right in front of us! They had amazing special effects too, lots of fire and sparks. Thanks, Amy, for getting us to that!

Here's the chocolate freaks with the decked out red M at M&M World. That's a cool place too, though so horribly over-priced, we couldn't buy anything, just enjoyed all the fun gadgets to look at. Again, quite entertaining.

Ahh, the drive home. We left on Thanksgiving morning so that we could spend a little more time in the Grand Canyon. As we got into the Canyon, it became cloudier and cloudier! So, what do ya know? We couldn't see out into the Canyon. Grand, it was not. And disappointed we were, that is an understatement! We enjoyed the beauty we did see, and it snowed on us a little, which is always pretty.Here are Kay and Cass on a bit of trail we took at Grand View Point. It was a little clearer there, but we still couldn't see far out.

After we were through the Grand Canyon, we saw some spectacular sights! There were wonderful sights to see most of the drive through Arizona. New Mexico is beautiful too! Above are the girls at a viewing area along the highway not too far from the Canyon....and check out below!

Awesome sight to behold. It was really like we could walk out there and touch it! There were also some beautiful canyons near this, that were wonderful. Our drive home was quite enjoyable, although Kaylee and Cassi coughed their poor little heads off most of the time, we are very thankful to have had safety, and beauty all along the way!

Our new car - a Toyota Sienna.

our great 8

8 TV SHOWS WE LOVE TO WATCH:
1. The office-
2. According to Jim
3. Seinfeld
4. The Unit
5. Missing, Without A Trace
6. the Mentalist
7. Everybody Loves Raymond (this would be a close 2nd to the Office probably)
8. King of Queens

8 RESTAURANTS WE EAT AT:
1. Vel's Amigo's (Kim's personal favorite)
2. Dairy Queen
3. Wendy's
4. SubWay
5. Pizza Hut
6. Dottie's
7. Casey's Pizza (we think it's pretty good)
8. Mazzio's Pizza (YUM)

8 THINGS WE DID YESTERDAY:
1. Barant put up a 16 foot Christmas tree, with thousands of lights (check out the V.C. if you want to see his handiwork)
2. Kim put up with a substitute teacher in the room instead of her alltime favorite Mrs. Althar.
3. Made Miss A. a big birthday cookie!
4. 3 loads of laundry
5. went to EMT class
6. stuck Joanne and Kendall with a needle (at EMT class)
7. took my huge dog on a walk (with Alli)
8. made Mom Hasek's goulash, per request by Cassi--YUM

8 THINGS WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO:
1. Thanksgiving in Las Vegas (it should be at least 40 degrees warmer there!)
2. bringing home my new, I mean OUR new car!!
3. Hilary and Andy and Zackary moving closer!!
4. holding Zackary in less than 2 weeks (I hope)
5. Christmas!
6. our children's graduations
7. the end of winter (oh, hasn't it started yet?)
8. seeing TWILIGHT the movie TONIGHT!!

8 THINGS ON OUR WISH LIST:
1. nice pair of running shoes (me too, Colista!)
2. Hawaii
3. a housekeeper
4. a chef
5. sleep
6. daily massages
7. a less loving dog (he is just too clingy)
8. new winter coat (for Barant)

8 PEOPLE WE TAG:
I don't think I know 8 people who blog and also check my blog, so you're all off the hook!

Our recent exciting events

Yep, Rudolph is officially out and about for the season! Here is Logan welcoming him! Can you believe how fast winter comes at us? I have lived right here in the Midwest ALL MY LIFE, you would think I would be used to this fact, the seasons change, and they change FAST! Last week we were enjoying 70 + degrees, and now it is 40 if we're lucky during the day! Oh well, as long as Rudolph comes with the change!

Kaylee, Logan and Cassi

This is one of our beautiful trees in our very own yard. I am sure we all agree that the colors here along the river are some of the best in the world! This picture was taken 2 or 3 days ago, today, it is almost completely bare!

Oh, yeah! The most exciting event of the season! This is my new car!!! Isn't it beautiful? For those who don't know, I have been dreaming of this certain car for the past 12 years! It is a Toyota Sequoia. We found a to-die-for deal at Payless Auto in Winslow, AZ. Check them out, they had my dream car, maybe they have yours too! That sounds way to much like a commercial, doesn't it? Oh well, I'm so happy, I'll even advertise for free. And even more exciting is how we get to pick it up! We (Barant, Kaylee, Cassi, and I) are flying to Vegas over Thanksgiving, and we'll be driving it home! This will be really good for Barant, as he likes to figure all of the new toys out as soon as he gets them, so he'll have the better part of 20+ hours to get it all figured out! We get to stay with my sister Amy, whom we never get to visit! We are so happy to be able to spend time with her and her husband, Jr. It's all so exciting! I know we'll have a blast. Alli and Logan will stay the week with my mom and dad, and Grandma and Grandpa Hohl. They are looking forward to that too.

Have a great week everyone!

A Wonderful Fall Day!

Today was beautiful! It must have been 73 degrees, and the trees are in full color. Kaylee, Cassi and I had a great bike ride into town and did some exploring. It was a fun time for all of us. Here are the girls at the Stone Arch Bridge, where they learned they can do things that seem hard:

Kaylee made the climb half way up, when she got scared and climbed back down. Cassi had watched and knew she could make it....and she did.Here is Kaylee halfway, and below, just before she slips! See, Cassi made it and spurred Kaylee to try again, so she did, and was doing great when...she fell. She almost gave up when I said, she was so close and I knew she could make it, she had to know it too! ...and she did it! She was glad she kept trying. We all learned that there are often times struggles before we get the great times we're trying for, but if we keep trying, we make it! And it's worth it!!

You can't see the look of triumph in their eyes the way I did. They made me so proud!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Hope you all had a fun Halloween! We did! Just some fun shots of the kids:

Daddy, making the "bedhead girl" look just right.

Here they are: Batboy, a cute little witch, Genie, and Bedhead

We are lucky to have a nice neighborhood right here to just walk around "the loop" and get all the treats we need, (and more):)

Sunday ramblings

Sorry, no pictures to post, but since it has been 2 weeks since the last one, I figured it was time to get you some new information. We are hanging in there, actually doing very well. We are very blessed to have the family we have, and the talents, and just everything we have. We're staying busy of course, and it is good for us. We aren't bored, and who wants to be bored?! EMT classes are going well... it is challenging, a lot of information in 8 hours a week, but Barant and I are both enjoying it thoroughly. We are excited to get to do some "ride alongs", where we will awaken to what it is really like. Those dummies we work on don't do any talking, and are just pretty dull. School is good for all of us, the kids all had good report cards, and great comments at parent/teacher conference. I really am grateful that I have good kids. They aren't perfect of course, but they're great! The fact that their teachers rave about their behavior says a lot. I am so glad they do know what respect is, and show it! So many just don't think it's important these days! Can you believe Logan is the one with the most complaints about talking during class?! I almost thought it was funny!! He apparently is a very social boy, who loves to talk and play around, even when the teacher is talking! Needless to say, we have talked about this and expect to see improvement from now on. Well, until next week, hopefully, take care!

"Survivor Hasek!!"

Well, we love camping, and we are trying to "be prepared" in these days of tragedy, disasters, and just never knowing what could happen next, so we decided to have a fake "emergency" on Saturday. It was very interesting, enjoyable, and we learned a TON! We have had our emergency backpacks ready for a while, the kids loved getting them ready! They have even said, "I wish an emergency would happen, so we could eat the stuff in our backpacks!" So, my clever husband planned an "emergency". We grabbed our packs, and left. We had great discussion the whole way, about different situations that could happen, and about choosing to be happy about this trip, instead of choosing to grumble. Anyway, here is some of what went on:

Yes, pretty much all of the kids were put out on the trek through the field to get to a "safe" place to stay. We walked maybe 1/2 a mile and it was like torture! Lesson #1: get more exercise!!!

And here is what we had to do next:

Make a shelter for us to stay warm in! It actually brought on smiles because the kids love to build and create! We all worked together, and are so thankful for Daddy's Scout brain!!

It came together nicely. It fit all of us, and was pretty fun for the kids to call home. Oh yeah, ignore the big white thing in the background. It isn't really there. We had to keep telling the kids that the whole time, we really wanted to just use what we had in our backpacks, to see just how prepared we were. We actually did very well. We gave in to the camper for a hot pad, (hadn't thought of that), and for a sleeping bag for Mom when she could not sleep at all in that crazy hut that night!!! Lesson #2: those funky silver emergency blankets that are so compact and easy to bring along are exactly like sleeping inside a potato chip bag! Seriously. Yes, they kept us warm, but holy cow, there was no rest for me with all the chips moving around in the sack!

Here is Logan's fire, he really made it, with supervision by Mom.

Of course Cassi and Alli ended up in the tree. They are part monkey, what do you expect?

Lesson #3: Jolly Ranchers get very soft in 6 months time.

Lesson #4: Generic Ritz crackers can be stale right out of the unopened package! (next time I'm getting the real thing)

All in all, we had a great time. I am so glad we could practice, and hope that every time we use our fun emergency backpacks, it's just for practice. We all decided we'd like to camp again soon, this is great weather for it, but next time we are looking forward to Dad's Gourmet Dutch oven cooking! We'll let ya know when we get to!!

Happy Birthday Barant

Another good year gone by! We can barely keep track of the blessings we receive! This was Barant's request for his cake, "Earthquake cake", YUM!
My buddy and I had a wonderful morning together a couple weeks ago. I took Logan to the dentist, where he did a great job opening his mouth showing his pearly whites! We could not simply drive past the park in Hamilton, it is a fun one, and it was quite enjoyable just Mom and Logan. He loves the tractor!! He has also gotten to ride with Grandpa Kevin on a real one, well in his combine this last week. He would be a great farmer, don't ya think?

Where do the days go?

This is Tank's "best friend", Cody. She is a Chocolate Lab who lives just 3 blocks away, so we get to see her often, and when they're lucky, we let them play! They play so great together, it is really fun to watch. We have to be sure we are in front of a large ofject, like a car, so that they won't crash into us, because they are so into each other, they don't even notice anyone else around! They are exactly the same age, which I think explains why they get along so great.

Here is a beautiful drawing that Alli drew in the classroom after school, while waiting for me to finish up for the day. School is going great for all of us! It is really amazing the way the time flies. The weeks just keep passing by so quickly, the kids brought midterm grades home today, they are pretty good, we are pleased. I am still enjoying my job there, especially seeing my own cute kids each day! I really love that part.
The 5th and 6th graders put on a play for all of us about Frances Scott Key and the making of the "Star Spangled Banner". They did great. Here is Kaylee, (in pink) with her best bud Jackalyn. They portrayed the women who worked hard sewing the first flag. (Uh, I'm pretty sure they never let the real flag touch the ground though!)

Well, as far as other activities going on here, there are few, but we seem to keep quite busy! Last week, there wasn't a single day when we came home from school and stayed here! Hilary and Zackary visited on Tuesday and Wednesday, which was awesome! Zackary is even more adorable, I can't believe I didn't snap a picture of him! He has grown so much! My new eyes are doing great, I highly recommend the Lasik procedure, the longer it has been, the more in awe I am. I can see wonderfully, and NO CONTACTS! And better yet, NO READING GLASSES! That is just a perk, I was to the point where I had to wear reading glasses on top of my contacts, or I'd get horrible migraines. Well, would you believe, I no longer am wearing ANY type of glasses, and I have NO MORE migraines!!! It was worth it for that alone! It really is amazing. So! Have a great week or two, until then.....love you all!

Happy Labor Day

The kids got their last swim of the season in today on this beautiful Labor Day! We spent the day working and playing at my mom and dad's.
This is Logan and Alli digging for gold by Grandpa's new building. Barant was helping get electricity to it today. Next time we go, I'm sure the holes will all be filled again, they got all the wires in. Good work guys.
Here is an adorable update of Zackary! Can they slow the growth down a bit for us aunts who don't see him as much as we want?! Anyway, have a great week everyone!