It's YOUR DAY & HIS DAY & OUR DAY!

YOUR DAY
Name: LeGrand James
Born: Brigham City Utah - March 31, 1980
Age: 28 yrs
Hair: Blond
Eyes: Blue
Race: African American, with blond hair and blue eyes...right! (Let me explain, his father is from South Africa his mother is from America - and African American sounds WAY cooler than White, right?)
Occupation: Hydro-plant operator, Rocky Mountain Power

Hobbies: Basketball, Computer, TV, Family, Toys, Friends, Metal Detecting, Sleep & Food!
Loves: ME!, Laex, Mexican food, ICE CREAM (Blue Bell), Yellow, Cars, Vacations, House Hunting (he dreams of being a flipper one day)!

Thanks for being the love of my life, best friend and better half. Thanks for sharing my dreams and adventures and for keeping things "alive". You are truly the best, Happy Day! We love you! Come home soon!


HIS DAY
My baby is quickly becoming a little man, Happy 8 months! You are the Joy of our lives and your smile melts our hearts, thanks for all the FUN! Love you!

OUR DAY
The Condo is officially Under Contract! Now, if you don't mind, I have a house to find!

You girls MADE MY DAY!

I'm really bugged that I don't have pictures for this post - but - Molly, I know you are stalking me so I better get the "one and only" picture e-mailed to me, SOON!

UPDATE: My threat worked (LOL) - I got the picture, Thanks Mol

You'll notice Molly was the photog (pretty much her excuse not to be in the picture, lol)

Anyway, yesterday Dani, Nikki, Molly and I met for lunch at none other than the good 'ol Olive Garden - can I just say, I was SOOO EXCITED, I'm pretty sure I was more excited than anyone else! And NO, it wasn't the food I was excited about, although it was a great addition to some even GREATER friends! Needless to say, no one except Molly had a camera and she was only able to get one shot out of the almost dead battery.

So, I had a BLAST. I haven't really seen Nikki or Molly since High School and we had such a fun time re-playing our life stories from High School until now and just reminiscing about the old times! Before we knew it we had been at the Olive Garden for two hours and the two babies (Nevie and Laexin) were more than done, actually they both just needed a nap!

On my drive home I couldn't stop thinking about how much I really enjoyed seeing you all, how greatful I am for good friends, how wonderful you all look, and how much I'm looking forward to getting together again (so...don't let me down!)!!

I'm so glad to learn that we are all so close to each other and that we can get together, Thanks GIRLS, Love you all!

are you kidding

When I woke to this scene this morning, I was anything but excited. What month is it??

Winter, are we done yet?

PS - I really am greatful for the moisture and know that when we're in the heat of the summer I'll be wishing for something cooler, but this just isn't what I want, not now.

Family, Food and FUN!

LeGrand arrived home Thursday evening from his week of working his butt off in St. George (to the tune of 50 hrs. of overtime in one week) and Friday morning we were off on our next adventure (lets just say he is DONE driving long distances for a while).


We had a WONDERFUL Easter Weekend with the Family in Fruita Colorado (just outside of Grand Junction). My dad has three sisters that live there and I have lots of cousins there, it was fun to see them and spend time together. Here are some highlights of our trip!

**Me getting a SPEEDING TICKET on the way there (oh CRAP!)-I knew I was speeding so there wasn't much I could do and now I have to pay the dang $82 ticket!

**Laexins first time out of UTAH - we had to stop for the occasion! We woke him from his nap in the carseat and he was wondering what the heck we were doing.

**Staying in the Super 8 Motel with all of the bicyclers. The place was pretty clean but as LeGrand said, "this place is a dive" - it was nice to have our own place away from all of the excitement although the bed wasn't the best so we didn't get much sleep. Laex LOVED the tissue dispenser, and we didn't mind watching him make a mess :)
**Dinner at Famous Daves and too much other GREAT FOOD including: Breakfast at Aunt Julie's and two dinners at Aunt Toni's - I feel like I need to run a marathon just to loose all thoes extra calories! The problem, when it's aunt Toni's cookin you just can't quit!

**Laex and cousin Avi playing together. They are so close in age it is fun to watch them together, they love each other!

**Family pictures taken by cousin Kelli Jo who does a FANTASTIC job...I'll show you the results later!
**Watching the excitement on the little one's faces when the Easter Bunny delivered the eggs!

**And the face of the bunny...

somehow he got wrapped into this job last year and now there's no getting out of it, thanks for being such a sport honey! (can I just add, it is the funniest thing I have ever seen - he plays the part to a "T", he hops the whole time he is spreading out the eggs and the kids stand with their faces plastered to the widows!)

**A peaceful trip home, arriving in safety to our quite little place

Maria B's

I'm a SUCKER for Mexican food, just look at it - Yummy! LeGrand and I are pretty adventurous and like to try different places to eat. About a year ago we came upon Maria Bonita's, a little Ma and Pop joint that has the BEST Mexican EVER (at least we think so). The food is always wonderful and the people (though they speak little English) are just as great! I could have some of this RIGHT NOW!

Road Trip

Unexpectedly LeGrand got sent to St. George for work on Thursday...I decided I wasn't about to sit home so Laex and I packed up and followed him. We had a fun trip, ends up we had friends who were already there that Laex and I got to hang out with a bit and we had lots of fun shopping. LeGrand just worked a lot and we only saw him to sleep.

During my drive I had a lot of thinking time and a couple of things occurred to me:
1st - Have you ever noticed that there are some odd towns in southern Utah (i.e. Sulphurdale, Paragona??)
2nd - I've made many many fond memories on "Road Trips" and some of the best have been with some of you! Here are a few of my Favorites!

*Utah To San Diego with the Fam.
Truck Topper
The Beach
Reunion
*Utah To Nebraska with Grams, Gramps & Blake
Buick
Car Sick Blake
*Vernal To Ogden with Dani
Red Honda
Frightmares
First Trip By Ourselves
Grandma's House
*Jersey to Boston with BG
Cooler
Radio
Clam Chowder and Lobster
1900's Accord (OK, maybe it was a LITTLE newer)
Lots of Snow
Firemen
Middle-Of-Nowhere Connecticut
Only Hotel
President Johnson
*Jersey to DC with Caldwell Stake
Temple Trip
*Jersey to Boston with BG, Kelli & Silly
Duck Tours
Shopping
Cab Driver
*Utah to Tijuana (in 1 day) with Grand
Celica
Honey Moon
I still Love you!
Crazy Cali Shopper and her Suitcase
Fish Tacos
Souvenirs
Crossing the Border
*The Trip Home
Jay Leno
Random Hotels
NYNY in Vegas
*Utah to Las Vegas with Grand
Jeep
New Years Eve/Day
Denny's
Helenfields
Great Friends
*Utah to Rexburg with Grand
Hot Ash (ebay car)
Crapo's
*Utah to St. George then on to Vegas with Grand
Accura
Anniversary
Celine Dion
Pats Condo
*Utah to Palo Alto with Jo (I know this involved a plane, but it felt like a road trip!)
BIG BLUE (Car & Suitcase)
Canvas
Boutique
Jewelry Lady (How to conceive when you don't think it's possible 101)
Staying with your Sis
SU! Party
Trying to get all that Crap home!

Man! I could go on all day! Thanks to all of you who I've shared these Awesome Memories with...I look forward to more trips, and more laughs!

For Papa

Laex is into everything he can get his hands on, especially if he knows he isn't supposed to be! He loves to play in our closet and mess up all the shoes. Papa Hoopes will enjoy this one, my boots are nearly bigger than he is!

You play with 'em...you wear 'em!

Determination

Not only is he feeling better, he's now getting tired of crawling!

(LeGrand isn't exactly a pro at videoing!)

whirlwind.

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth.


So many things have happened around here since last Thursday that I'm finally getting back to thinking clearly (kind of).


*Mom and Dad in town - which always consits of running from one place to another, plenty of shopping and lots of good food.
*Relief Society Birthday Party, decorations, food and fun!
*Frantically cleaning the house for people to come look at it (it's for SALE!!), then people in and out - some second timers, this gets our hopes up.
*Drives, all around the valley looking for a potential new house.
*A much needed and very cute hair cut, I thoroughly enjoyed my time alone at the salon, chatting with my wonderful beautician and getting well taken care of.
*LeGrand working extra long hours, we are not used to this - but I guess it's all part of the new job, and frankly I'm not really complaining about time-and-a-half pay!
*Oma in the hospital with kidney failure, things are looking up.
*A wonderful Sunday dinner with even better friends.
*Almost running out of gas, on the freeway, and quickly learning that the "gas light" doesn't work!


And through it all...











*Laexin running a temp. above 100 since Friday night which ultimately resulted in little to no sleep for LeGrand and I and ended in a visit to the ER (this morning at 5 am). After almost three days of a high temp finally reaching 104.5 I decided it was more than just teething.
*He has an ear infection and the flu...good thing for modern medication that will help him heal, and the wonderful power of the priesthood.

Lovey

I was folding the laundry today and came across this...













Laex's LOVEY!!


It got me thinking, do I have a lovey? It just so happens that I do.













I don't carry it everywhere I go (thank heavens), I don't even sleep with it everynight but it is by far the most comfortable napping blanket in the house. When I was in high school I got this homemade blanket for christmas, then I moved away to be a nanny and one day I got a package in the mail (this was nothing new as my great mom was always sending me fun stuff), who would have known...there was my blanket. It just happened to be at a time when I needed it most, it was my small connection to home and brought me lots of comfort. I like to believe my mom just knew I needed it (or maybe she just needed it out of the house so she didn't have to be reminded everyday that I was gone). This blanket has traveled many miles, has been well used and I'd have to say that wal-mart material has held up pretty well.

Do your kids have a lovey? Do you have a lovey?


Share.

Sunday get-together

We got to visit with all of LeGrand's family at little Carly's blessing yesterday, it was so fun to have everyone together. Oma & Opa from Mississippi, Wheelers from Roy, JG & Ledjin from Salt Lake and us gathered at the Hanecaks in Syracuse.