Our Christmas Agenda

Christmas is well under way for our family! We are spending time at Kellen’s parent’s house with his Mom, dad, sister and niece. Tuesday I am going to Spokane to a barista class that our coffee roaster we are going to use is putting on which should be a ton of fun. They have the Italian national champion barista coming in for the day and putting on a class( Yes they have barista championships….Yes most of the people are, well lets just say interesting LOL…they also have latte art competitions and “Cupping” competitions). Wednesday we are headed to Moses Lake to make some Tamales Yummy! And spend Christmas eve and Christmas morning with my daddio, Lisa and my sisters. Christmas afternoon we are headed to my mom’s house with my sisters to spend some time there and Suday the 26th Courtney is going to stop by and hang out too. So we should have lots of fun in the busy week ahead of us but it will be nice to spend time with the family and see everybody!




Kenadie is still doing really well, being a crazy but health baby! She is walking and running everywhere, spinning circles and doing her best to climb on anything that she can possibly reach. She has a small vocabulary that includes: Baby, mama, dada, papa, num num (Food, she also does sign language for this) puppy, buh bye and uh-oh. I think this is it. She also does sign language for: Done and More. She is a lot of fun and keeps us on our toes. It is great to see her learn and do more! Time is definitely flying by! We wish you all Happy Holidays and I will do my best to post pictures later!



~Brooke

Thanksgiving Feast!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year with great friends and family. We ended up going to Ritzville and rented the local golf course so we could celebrate with lots of people. In attendance we had Kellen’s Mom Elaine, Kellen’s dad Tooter, Kellen’s sister Hillary, Our niece Brooklynn, Tanner Hillary’s Boyfriend, Ricks mom Rita, Ricks dad John, all of us girls ( Brooke, Courtney, Brandy, Cassie) and of course Kellen and Kenadie. We had a couple more on our guest list that weren’t able to make it because of the down pour of snow that happen to “rain” on our parade. Making sure all of the food was hot from my mom’s house to the golf course was a bit of challenge but we made it. Besides the mashed potatoes trying to catch the house on fire the food was pretty good! Ok so it was probably my / my mom’s fault that we tried to catch the house on fire (for me again but that’s a story for another day) we put the food in aluminum pans so we could heat them/ keep them warm in the oven. Well the butter on top melted all over the inside of the stove and the potatoes decided to act like a volcano and erupt everywhere catching on fire in the oven. Needless to say the house was FILLED with smoke and the fire alarm kept going off, but nothing was burnt and everything tasted pretty good! We didn’t quite make it up for black Friday shopping like we hoped because we stayed up way to late playing games and having fun. However we managed to make it up to Spokane the next day before all the sales were over. We scored a couple of movies and knocked out a bit of Christmas shopping. Personally I think Black Friday has truly sucked the last couple of years!!!

~Brooke

Disney On Ice

Kenadie, Glama (My mom) and I went to Disney on ice! It was a blast! Kenadie really really liked it.We gave a her a baby "poof" hair style and some sparkles. We dressed he in a fleece outfit so she would stay wark without a coat. At the show she would watch all of the skaters go around the rink, watch all of the people walk up and down the stair and point to every kid in sight and say “baby”. She did pretty good with staying in her seat there were a couple of times during a slower paced act or where the music was very mellow that she would get a little bored and wormy. It also didn’t help that is slightly interfered with her regular nap time so she was on the verge of crabbiness, but we really did have a good time! After the show we went out to lunch at Black Angus and took her Great Grandma out for lunch as an early birthday gift. It of course was delicious! We did a bit of shopping at Hobby Lobby (one of my FAVORITE stores) Then we headed to Wal-Mart in airway to get the Thanksgiving shopping done and I am sure my mom and I looked like totally dorks sitting in each aisle debating if we were getting enough of everything to feed all our of Thanksgiving guests as a side note we did! We had plenty of leftovers (maybe because we tried to smoke everything?) After all was said and done we headed back to Ritzville Kenadie passed out in the back seat from the long day of Disney and shopping!


~Brooke

Kenadie's Birthday!

We had her party November 6^th which was the Saturday after her Birthday. Her birthday was Butterfly themed with LOTS of bright colors! It was very cute! Kenadie wore a cute pink birthday dress with a cupcake on it also very cute! She had tons of playing with some of the other kids that were there opening presents but I am pretty sure her favorite part was when everyone was singing her Happy Birthday. I think we may have a future ham on our hands… The only thing that sucked about her birthday was that she had her one year checkup the day before and of course she got lots of shots. So she was a little cranky Saturday but she took lots of naps and she seemed pretty good for her party! He appointment really good as well…. Well kind of she looked ok she is still tiny. She also has a small murmur that they will check next time she goes in. The most interesting part was when the doctor looked in her mouth she FREAKED out starting crying and holding her breath ( as she does quite often) anyway she was holding her breath so long she was on the verge of passing out! She hates her ears and mouth being looked at quite honestly she does better getting shots… weird I know but oh well to each their own I guess!

~Brooke

Rita and John (Ricks mom and Dad)

Let's play catch up...

So I haven't updated this in awhile ( Sorry about that) but life has been totally crazy so here is the latest and greatest. First of all we are offically moved to Pullman and it has been great so far, granted our apartment is smaller than our last one we have managed to get rid of stuff and pack the closets as tight as possible LOL ;-) Kellen's school is going really well and he hasn't had any problem with any of his classes (or the sometimes crazy teachers) so that has been a relief. Tooter (Kellen's dad) had a bladder infection about 1 1/2 months ago that wasn't healing up very fast. Well they ended up doing a catscan and it came back that he had a tumor in his kidney. He ended up having surgery Thursday October 21st in Colfax and it went very well! He is recovering very nicely his incisions look fabulous and he is suppose to be released from the hospital tommorow ( Tuesday October 26). The only bad part about the whole surgery was that he did end up spending his 60th Birthday in the hospital which was today.( Happy Birthday Toot-A-Loop) In more exciting family news Kenadie's first birthday is only 7 days away! We will be having a party for her on Novmember 6th at my mom's house in Ritzville. It will be alot of fun getting to see her go crazy with her cake and open gifts. I am also in the process of opening up a brand new coffee shop but I will give you more details on that later. Kenadie and I also started taking baby swimming lessons and it has been going great. We go every wednesday night from now until December then there is another session starting after that but I am not sure if we are going to do it yet or not. All I know is it is going to suck when it is snowing out and we have to walk out too our car all wet! Grrrrr. Kenadie is a great "Swimmer" she LOVES the water and splashes me and all the other babies that aren't all exactly as excited as she is to be wet. We play games like ring a round the rosie and wheels on the bus. I dunk her under the water and she doesn't mind it at all. The only problem is that you are suppose to blow in their face because it make the babies hold their breath well I blow in Kenadie's face and she holds her breath with her mouth open so after she comes up then she has a mouth full of water to spit out LOL. Her absolute favorite thing in the water is when she gets to "jump in" I sit her on the edge of the pool then grab her fingers count to three then pull her in she gets SO Excited! Also she is walking EVERYWHERE!!!!! and she is attempting to run and climb and get into everything. So last bit of exciting news before I go to bed is that Pullman's brand new Wal*Mart opens on Wednesday at 8:00am LOL

p.s. Sorry about all of the miss spelled words and bad grammer I am in a hurry and I am not going to proof read or use spell check Sorry ;-)

~Brooke

Get Motivated

Gen. Colin Powell

My mom, my sisters and I had the privilege to go to a "Get Motivated" seminar at the Spokane Arena. It started at 8:00 in the morning and got over at 5:00 pm. We ended up leaving a little bit early due to boredom. There were some really awesome speakers and some not so awesome speakers. General Colin Powell was there he did a good job he was very engaging and entertaining to listen to. My favorite note for him was "It doesn't matter where you started at. It only matters where you finish and how you got there". Rudolph Giuliani was there and to our surprise he was not so entertaining or engaging to watch ( he's the reason we left, sorry Rudy) we had higher expectations for him I must say. There were a variety of topics the speakers spoke about and I did end up getting so pretty decent notes. Zig Ziglar was there he has really aged and he is not all there anymore. His daughter helped him on the stage and the kind of did a question answer thing then finished up with a video. The key point that I got out of his deal was "tell the truth" he really didn't go into much. A man named Krish Dhanam spoke I have never heard of him before but he was AWESOME defiantly top two speakers of the day. I would love to hear him speak again and more in depth. One of my favorite things he said was "misery and mediocrity love company". Bob Cantell (SP) spoke and did a presentation about the stock market and "pitched" an investing class. I think Brandy and I are going to go to it this weekend so I will give you guys an update after that. He was a good speaker though. James Smith spoke on finances he was awesome to listen too! He was very funny and extremely engaging. He also "pitched" a class on finances/investing (outside of the stock market) we decided not to go to that one. Interesting fact I learned from him was that "people spend more money on soft drinks and coffee than after graduation on education". I took two pages of notes from him. We listened to Dr. Bob Hanson my favorite note from him was "If you’re going to be thinking anyway you might as well think bigger". My note from Dr. Robert Schuller "Cut impossible out of your life". Rick Belluzo former president of Microsoft he was a good speaker as well I got some really good notes from him but my favorite was "It matters how you win and how you loose". Over all the whole thing was pretty good we had great seats ( My camera sucked) especially for only $6 Brandy and Cassie made it on stage for a dance off to win a trip to Disney World..... guess they don't got the moves LOL! put your finger in the air and sing oh ee oh ee oh ooo ( a chant from a song/dance thing)

One of the lead singers from hootie and the blow fish

The Pullman Story....

So as promised here is the whole update on the Pullman situation. So for those of you who are unaware Kellen is studying to by Agricultural Education teacher aka Ag Ed. As far as I am aware the only school in Washington where he can finish his degree is WSU in Pullman. So Kellen took all of his prerequisites (or at least we thought) got accepted and was planning on attending WSU this fall. Kellen put in his two week notice at work found an apartment in Pullman and went to down to WSU on the 16th to start orientation only to find out that he didn't have all the credits he needed. So he was accepted to WSU to be a student in the fall but he would receive no financial aid because of his credits and we would have to pay the 12-15 thousand out of pocket... which we don't have randomly lying around. So the alternative was to go to Spokane Falls Community College pilot school in Pullman finish up his AA and take some extra classes that will give him his AA educational which will allow him to do some substitute teaching as well. Needless to say we decided to go that route. Now Kellen doesn't start school until September 20th so we are spending some quality family time together, working on odd and end projects and just having fun until school starts at the end of September. Wish us luck on the rest of the schooling adventure :-) .....

Days go by..........

Is this not an awesome veiw to wake up too?

Wow I have been meaning to put up a new post and I am sorry I have been slacking so. I am going to give you all a brief up date into our crazy life! So last Friday Kellen, Kenadie and I went to the Norththern Quest Casino and met up with Kellens Aunt Marilyn who flew in from California  as well as him Elaine, Tooter, Hillary, Brooklynn and Tanner. We ate some Panda Express and enjoyed swimming in the pool! Then Saturday morning we headed to Lake Roosevelt and met up with Cassie, Brandy, Courtney, John, Rick and Amy. We played games floated on the river and had fun. Dusty, Rodney and Jacob came down later that night and Amy cooked us all some yummy pork taco things. Thankfully we all made it through the weekend with out any serious injuries or Sunburns LOL. We came home sunday afternoon then headed out to Couer D' Alene to say bye to Marilyn and hang out a little bit more. Monday Kellen and I went to Pullman which was an absolute adventure one the deserves it's own post. Tuesday Cassie, Brandy, Amy and I went to the Get motivate seminar it was pretty good. There were some awesome speakers and then some not so awesome speakers. I will post more on that too later. Which brings us to today. Kellen, Kenadie and I are in the big ol town of Ritzville/ Washtucna hanging out with our family and helping around the house. I will post some pictures and update on a couple more post in a few days when things calm down just a little bit more
:-)

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Mr. frog

Cleaning up the mess from the day before

Sunday morning eating breakfast

Grandma & Kenadie

Wake up Brandy you lazy butt

First Comes Love then Comes Marriage.......

Kellen and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary Wednesday August 4th! It is Crazy to think we have been married 3 years! It definitely doesn't feel like it has been that long but I guess that is a good thing. We didn't do a whole lot for our anniversary since we have busy with moving stuff. Kellen had to work so Kenadie and I went and wandered the mall and met up with Jenna for coffee. When Kellen came home we went out to Golden Corral and got dinner (Wow I just felt like an old couple when I typed that)we then went to redbox and rented a movie. Kellen and I have been truly blessed with a wonderful Marriage and we are both sure there will be many more wonderful years to come!

Jenna and Kenadie

Kenadie Clapping

Kenadie Eating her baby snacks

I took a video of Kenadie's car seat fit when we left Golden Corral so those of you who haven't seen it can appreciate it  this one was actaully pretty mild compared to others :-)

Watch out Pullman....

Wheat Country

On Tuesday Kellen, Kenadie and I went to Pullman to go apartment hunting for Kellen. Kenadie babbled the whole way down and attempted to sing along with the music? We went to ones owned by McVicars first (they are the ones we rented our first apartments from in Spokane and had a HORRIBLE experience with them. Needless to say I was not even thrilled with the idea of considering those ones and of course all of their renting stuff was just odd Big Surprise). SO we ended up finding one that are very nice and quiet. Granted they have a green stove I think Kellen can survive LOL. It is on the bottom floor so that will be nice for heating, cooling and moving. We now just have to wait for the last bit of cleaning and fixing the blinds and they will be ready to move into. After all of the apartment hunting we went to our friend Caroline's house for some Hamburgers then hit Zeppo's for a couple games of bowling. Our friend Brianna met us there and it was great to be able to catch up! Everything is falling nicely into place! (The pictures are from on our way down)

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Thanks for the good pic babe!

Time for a check up

She was determined to get the bandage off

Today we had Kenadie’s 9 month check up! I can't believe it has been NINE months since we first held her in our arms! We had to wait quite ahile and had time to take lots of pictures! She made a MESS of the mirror and she kept trying to eat her reflections. Doctor finally came and she was healthy as always still tiny. She weight exactly 17 pounds which put her in the 20% for her weight and measured in at 24 3/4 inches putting her in the 35% for her height. She is a petite little thing with ALOT of attitude! She did pretty good with everything she wants to be on the go 24-7 so she was kind of a wigge worm. She did good until the doctor wanted to look in her mouth that was a fight she was NOT going to open her mouth willingly. The doctor got it open and won the battle which of course mad her mad and brought on the tears but she got over it fast. No shots today which was nice and I am sure she appreciated it too! She did get a little poke in the foot so they could test her iron which turned out great as well. I was totally in shock when the nurse came in to get the blood she cleaned off Kenadie’s toe with alcohol and poked it, she let the blood flow out for a little bit so they could get a good count and all the while Kenadie just sat there. IT WAS AMAZING! She even let the nurse put on the cotton and Band-Aid! Of course after the Band-Aid was on she tried to pull and chew it off. Needless to say it was short lived. Pretty much all is well in healthy in the Hays house except for poor Kellen who has a bit of a cold. There is one other thing that totally boggles my mind and that is some of you reading this I am sure have witnessed the mega fits Kenadie throws when she has to get in the car seat, but for some odd reason the car seat I swear is her favorite toy? Is that just not weird!

Playing in the car seat REALLY?

After the car seat battle ready to head home

I think the Tiny toe with the bandage is so Cute!

playing with the mirror as we waited

What are you doing over there Dr.?

Trying to keep entertained

Go Indians......

The Family

Kenadie went to her FIRST Spokane Indians game July 16, 2010 she did surprisingly better than expected. It was Yoke’s family feast night so we all chowed down on $1 hotdogs, soda & ice cream sandwiches. We ended up sitting in left field in sun for a bit since we took our time getting our tickets. The Indians were down the first couple of innings but then came back and were ahead about 4 runs. We ended up leaving the bottom of the 8th inning because Kenadie was tired and it was past her bed time. The best part of the whole game was we all got free pancakes at IHOP & free chalupas from Taco Bell LOL. Kenadie truly enjoyed seeing all of the people and watching the different announcers and mascots dancing around. We all had a great time and enjoyed the game.

Aunt Hill and Kenadie

Mommy and Kenadie

Papa, Nee Nee & Baby

Go Indians!

Kenadie eating her first ice cream sandwich.... we think she likes it!

Daddy & Kenadie

OTTO the Spokaneasaurus

Getting Derby....

                                                                                              Team Bacon

Kellen did his 3rd derby this last June in Lind, WA during the 2010 Demolition Derby Extravaganza. We had a good time working on the car and building it (Yes by we I primarily mean Kellen LOL). This year Kellen ran a 1968 Cadillac Sedan Deville 472 Big block. It held up pretty well even though when we first got to the track the oil pump broke after Kellen ran the time trials. Kellen was very disappointed after that happened and we debated about keeping the car and fixing it up so he could run the Spokane Derby but we decided since we didn’t have any money invested into the car itself might as well destroy it! Even with a broken oil pump Kellen placed 3rd at the Derby (Woo Hoo) Definitely an improvement from 5th with the 1988 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon (Vegas Vacation Style) or 8th with the 1976 Ford LTD Crown Vic. It was hot but we had a blast we dubbed ourselves Bacon Racing and had lots of Friends & Family there for support!! I will post more pictures of the finished product and the derby!

                                          

      The mouth f the beast "K911"                                          The curly "PIG" tail

The Side View "ARIZON BP"

Just a little Muddy & Smashes

 

Wow Tammy....

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts. ~Author Unknown