The World of Hails

Six Month Pics

2012-01-22T01:26:00.000-08:00

My baby is six months old! Wow, I'm okay with the fact that she is six months old. The thing I am not okay with is that in six more months she will be 1 year old. It just can't be! I tried to be my own photographer for her six month pictures. I found that I am not the best photographer but that they are better than nothing. I am just going to post all the pictures because frankly I can't choose my favorites because they are all my favorite because they all have my favorite person in them. (Derek's another favorite, just as favorite as Carly, they are both my favorites ) I just had to put that in there because poor guys, when you get married they are your favorite, then all of a sudden this teeny, tiny person comes and joins the family and all of a sudden the guys don't get told they're the favorite anymore even though, in my case, they still are a favorite!

I love this last one! Carly is so tickled to be playing with her frog... to die for!

World of Curls!

2012-01-18T21:38:00.000-08:00

I decided that I needed to change the name of my blog to World of Curls instead of World of Hails. Carly is me and Derek's whole world. We are happy and proud to say that our worlds suddenly changed when Carly came into our family and that now our world revolves around her. What did I do before her, what did I think about? Anyway, we love you baby Curly Carly!

I was putting laundry away one day so I put Carly in her crib and let her play with her stuffed animals! She had a great time! Her favorite part was finding the tags on all of them. As you can see from the picture she was pretty successful!

Carly has a new trick! It is called falling asleep while sitting up. Sounds like someone I know... Dad! ( My dad, not hers) :) Anyway, she has started taking less naps and staying awake for longer periods of time. This makes her very tired! She has fallen asleep while eating and while I am holding her straight up, facing out quite a few times! It is kind of sad but really funny. People always told me that I would never sleep again after having Carly. I think that was a lie or maybe I just have a good baby but I sleep every night for about eight hours and I sleep GOOD! Elisa, if you read my blog, please try and skip that part ;)

Carly loves the water! She giggles everytime I sprinkle it on her!

My mom got Carly a Little Einstein's DVD for Christmas. Carly had a ball watching it... for ten minutes at least :) She was flailing her arms and legs around and squealing.

After 10 minutes she got tired.

Then she got really mad. In our house tired = mad and it applies to all family members :)

This is not the best picture but I just love the "I just woke up" look that Carly has!

2012-01-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

2011-12-03T21:15:00.000-08:00

My sweet baby Curls! I love her and her cute personality that is coming out!
sweet...check! cute...check! melts me and Derek's heart...check! Patient...we're still working on that one!

2011-12-03T19:43:00.000-08:00

Wowzers! It has been a really long time since the last time I blogged. To all those who die to see my cute baby girl growing... I apologize!

Idaho Trip!

Derek's sister got married the beginning of November which meant Derek and I were able to go to Idaho for it! What a stinkin' fun trip! It was so nice. Derek stayed in NM for about a week working and then flew back right before Haylie got married. I was able to stay with just my mom and Trev for a whole week! It was so fun. My mom spoiled me big time with good food, rest, good conversation, and everything else a wonderful mom gives. She spoiled Carly with so much love and attention. We felt like royalty! I got to see all of my siblings and spend some good time with them all. It was a much needed vacation.

Mason the baby man! What a great cousin! Curls is looking a little tired from the oodles of attention she got from everyone!

Cousin Gibson feeding Curls her bottle.
Funny Story: Curls would not and I tell you WOULD NOT nurse while we were in Idaho. It was a struggle every 3 hours. Actually she wouldn't even eat every three hours. Once she went 12 hours without eating and that was during the day. I know... I was freaking out. Anyway, she just didn't want to nurse so I had to keep pumping and give her a bottle. When we came back to New Mexico she changed her mind and decided she hated bottles and only wanted to nurse. That silly girl!

Carly loves Trever and Trever loves Carly. He would pick her up, talk to her, make her smile, etc.
One day I was upstairs talking to my mom and Carly was sleeping downstairs in our room. All of a sudden I hear Carly crying and her cry is getting closer and closer to me. I went to see how that was happening and there Trever was bringing her up the stairs! Ahhh! He told me she was crying so he went and got her. Trever doesn't have the best balance especially going up stairs and Carly wasn't very good at holding herself up yet. It was one of those things that I laughed about because it was over and they both survived without any trouble. My mom and I just decided that we would have to keep a closer eye on that! Haha! Trever is such a stud!

Just cute, plain cute!

Cousin Claire with Carly! Look at that cute face!

Camping Trip

2011-10-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Derek and I went camping last weekend with our friends the Bisels and Rhett. We had wanted to go camping and we mentioned to the Bisels and they definitely made it happen. Derek and I aren't the best planners so Aimee and Cole stepped in and helped us plan! It was so much FUN!

Derek had Friday off so we started the day off by going to Roswell to the eye doctor. Roswell is about an hour away from Carlsbad. Yes, we could've gone to a doctor in Carlsbad but one lady we talked to said that the doctor here charges about twice as much and it is usually a two month wait to get in. I was blown away. So we went to Roswell and then headed toward Cloud Croft where we would be camping. When we started driving toward Cloud Croft we were driving in land that was BARREN! As far as the eye could see, there was flat, dry, yellow ground with a few tiny sagebrush here and there. I was thinking to myself... this may be a unique camping experience for us! Well slowly the landscape started shifting and by the time we had driven two hours it looked like we were in the middle of Island Park with the fresh mountain air and all. We set up our tent and started a fire (I started the fire :) ). Cole and Aimee made us tinfoil dinners or hobo dinners and they were so, so good! After eating jalepeno fire cheetos, s'mores, and hobo dinners it was getting dark and we decided to go play a game in our tent. Once the sun went down the wind picked up. It was blowing so, so hard. The sides of our tent were caving in on us while we were trying to play our game and the light was waving back and forth and it was really fun but really hard to play a game. With the light waving back a forth it would have been a lot easier to have a disco dance party. We just didn't have the music or the dancing skills! Eventually our tent ripped and came tumbling down pretty much. :( So Derek, Carly, and I slept in our car, Rhett slept in the Bisels truck, and the Bisels slept in their tent that was obviously a little higher quality than ours seeing that it didn't even look like it was touched by the wind! :)

The next day we replayed our game on a flat table in the nice constant daylight and it was a blast. We ate breakfast consisting of apple juice, bagels and cream cheese, and grapes. MMmmm... Then we went for a walk, sat around the fire, ate lunch, and just did what campers do.... Relaxed! It was so nice. We ended the day by driving to the town Cloud Croft which has a West Yellowstone feel. Everything was closed but we did find a pizza shop that we stopped at and ate dinner before hitting the road again to go home!

Group picture of the Derek, Me, Carly, Aimee, little Finn, Cole, and Rhett.

The boys sleeping on our fallen tent :(

Curlzy and Dad... so cute! Carly loves her dad. She stares at him whenever he's around!

A joint happiness to see each other in the morning. Carly slept eight hours straight! Best night sleep yet!

Rhett with Carly

Carly and Finn. Finn is about 3 1/2 months older than Carly. He is such a stud!

Carly and Finn snoozing away for their mid-day nap! I love Carly's hat!

A random, friendly horse that showed up, stayed for a couple minutes, then ran away!

Rhett giving the horse a hug!

Derek hauled in this huge, funny looking log! Looks like a horn!

Camera Craze!

2011-10-05T15:15:00.000-07:00

So I decided that since I need to blog a lot because I am in New Mexico and so far away from everybody, I should probably carry my camera around more often. I take it everywhere we go now and I am on a taking picture CRAZE! Of course, I have a very cute model to take pictures of... that definitely helps! Not much is new around here but here are some very cute pictures of Curls and her adventures.

Hats! We are planning a camping trip for this weekend and I want Curls to stay nice and warm. We pulled out her hats to see what would work the best.

A little big I think ....

There's a little peeper!

Great Grandpa Allen made this hat for Carly. It's a little small for her now but very cute!

Carly is big enough to sit up in her stroller instead of riding in her carseat in her stroller. She's so BIG! She obviously loves our walks!

Carly's first time driving a car! I had to move the car on the lawn to wash it so she helped me move it!

Here's my dirty man! I don't know what it is but he looks very good after a hard day of work!
p.s. Derek's job is giving him some mighty fine muscles :)

First time washing a car!

Carly fell asleep on her own arm while helping me do chores! Sleeping on the job...again!

Curly Carly!

2011-09-27T19:34:00.001-07:00

Since this posts name is Curly Carly, I would like to start out with these two pictures! Carly's nickname is Curlz or Curly because Carl just doesn't work out very well! These pictures are pretty appropriate for her name though.

Carly has a mullett! The other day I decided to curl it. (Don't worry, I didn't pull out the curling iron, I just curled it with my fingers!) It looked really funny and surprisingly pretty cute! In fact, I would dare to say it's the cutest curly mullett I've ever seen and I have seen a few.

OUR FUN WEEKEND

On Saturday, we went to a recreation center they have here in Carlsbad. It's pretty neat mainly because it is free. They have raquetball courts, basketball courts, ping pong tables, pool tables, etc. We decided to go and try out their racquetball courts.

Here is a little snapshot of the Pecos River in Carlsbad.
People around these here parts aren't in to early rising. The Rec Center didn't open until 1 o'clock. We got there about 12:15 or so. We waited for a while and then decided to go on a little walk to see if the pedal boats were available. The place that rents out pedal boats is closed for the summer. bummer. I guess it's not warm enough to be out on the river in 90 degree weather.
Rhett came with us and he sure makes things more fun! While Rhett and Derek were playing a round of raquetball, I put Derek's work hat on little Curls. Derek works for this company named NORCON and he, like Curls, looks really good in this hat :) We can't wait to go back and play some more.

On Sunday we went on a family bike ride with Rhett included. It took us about an hour to actually get all of our bikes ready. We finally go ready and on the road. I made it about 50 yards and my freshly pumped tire was already flat again. I told the boys to go ahead and that I would change the tube in my tire and meet up with them. Thank goodness Randall was close by and helped me change my tire because it would have taken me a long time, but he just whipped the tire right off, whipped it right back on and we were good to go. Note: You really don't have to read all of this. I am counting this as my journal, so I may go into more detail then the regular public may want to read :)

We love our baby carrier. We just strap Curls on to us and take her with us wherever we go!

Making a Carly footprint. I stuck her foot in the water and she didn't appreciate that, so we tried the sand which went way better.

Carly's first sand footprint, but there will be many more of those to come especially since Derek and I are going to retire at age thirty in Hawaii! :)

Family picture! Notice the yellow thing by Carly's mouth? That is a biking glove that we found in a little pack on the back of Rhett's bike. One thing I have learned about being a parent: You have to be and will be very creative in finding ways to make your baby stop crying. Derek had to stop biking every ten seconds to re-insert Carly's binking in her mouth. She was in one of those moods (tired) where she really wanted her binky but couldn't seem to keep it in. We finally found "the wonder glove" to help hold it in!

Carly's binky fell in the sand and therefore became... useless. This picture is how she felt after that! I posted this picture because she is so cute even when she is a grumpster. She was getting really upset so I became desperate and stuck her thumb in her mouth. She really liked it and it put her right to sleep. I thought I might regret that later but she hasn't been able to find it again, so I think we're okay!

When we came home we watched the BSU game that we had recorded the night before. Derek's mom made us crepes. So we pigged out! So fun!

Sweet Carly fell asleep during the game! She was so happy to be reunited with her binky!

PAST PICTURES

Here are some pictures I found on my camera of Carly's first couple weeks. She was so tiny!

Carly's first blowout!

It may have been the first but definitely not the last!

Lindsay and her kids came to visit us when Carly was about a week. Little Bretty loved holding Carly.

Brett swinging Carly.

Brett wanted to hold Carly and play with his cars! He found a way to do it!

Laying on Grandpa's chest... precious!Just plain cute, nothing else to say!

One of her first baths!Sleeping on Daddy.

Trying to eat her swing.

2011-09-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

Carly Alysse Allen

We are so happy to have Carly in our family! We feel so blessed to have her sweet spirit and she is SWEET! It is nice to have her to blog about... I can't get enough of her :)

Carly with her cousin Saydee! Saydee wasn't sure about holding a real baby, but she sure loves her dolls!

Carly with her cousing Baylee.

Carly with her Uncle Trev! Trever loved meeting Carly. I kept catching him kneeling down by her and talking to her. It was so so so cute!

I love being a wife and mommy! It makes me so happy!

This is one thing I did not forsee... the carseat and the blessing dress. I just thought about Carly in her cute, sweet, poofy dress and getting her dressed. I forgot about GETTING her to the church, so we just stuffed her dress in the carseat with her in it.

Carly having reading time with Daddy! She loves her daddy but she wouldn't stop looking at her mommy!

This time she was paying attention to the book :)

Cheese!

Extra Cheese!

This seems to happen a lot, it's either me or Derek falling asleep with our little Curls!

Carly LOVES music! Derek and I sing to her a lot and she can't help but smile. In this picture, Carly is watching and listening to Derek play the guitar.

Big eyes!

Looking good in green!

Man, she is a cutie! Everyone in NM thinks she is too. Especially people at Wal Mart. Here a few Wal Mart stories:

1. There is a lady at Wal Mart who can't get enough of her. She has dubbed herself as Carly's aunt of Wal Mart! haha! She is a greeter there.

2. There was this old toothless (okay, he had one or two) man at Wal Mart who was a veteran who said she was the cutest baby he had ever seen and he just wanted to pick her up a sqeeze her. I didn't allow it.

3. This hisapanic lady and her elderly mom were walking in the parking lot and stopped to see Carly. The elderly hispanic lady was so cute and sweet. She didn't speak a lick of English but she just held her arms out after looking at her for awhile. I was brave and let her hold Carly. I could tell that it made her day!

She is trying to figure out how to hit her rings on her playmat. She got a hold with her pinky! I'm so proud!Loving her playmat!

We just love our little girl! Derek and I are doing really well in New Mexico. The people here are AWESOME! They are so friendly and down to earth. We have already made quite a few good friends and Derek is loving his job.

More Summer Fun!

2011-07-07T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last night, Derek and I were in our living room and I realized something... we looked like an old couple. Derek was sitting on the couch with his glasses down on his nose doing his homework and I was sitting in my rocking chair, legs covered with a blanket, doing a cross-stitch. I just kept looking at us and laughing!

Over the Fourth of July weekend, Derek and I walked into blockbuster and Avatar: The Last Airbender series was playing on one of the T.V.'s in the store. Derek used to watch these when he was in high school and he had told me about them before. We decided to start watching the series. I wanted to because I am sold on any entertainment that I know is clean and I won't have to worry about at all! I wasn't sure if I would really like it, but I was excited to give it a try. It has been so fun watching these! It is an awesome series! The story is really good and it's almost like watching 24. They always end an episode at an intense part so that you have to watch the next one. I feel like a nerd but I would definitely recommend these!

Setting up the temporary crib!

Since we will be moving to New Mexico a little over a month after baby girl comes, we decided not to set up the crib to only take it down a few weeks later. I got a pack n' play from one of my baby showers so we decided to use that for the first little while. I set it up the other day and I now I am going crazy! :) I get to look at this crib everyday and just imagine our little girl in there. I CAN'T WAIT! Good thing I only have two weeks left.

Lunch with Derek!

Everyday I get to take Derek lunch and eat with him. We have "our spot" where we always sit. It is one of my favorite parts of the day! We sit underneath a shade tree and just talk and eat. It is so fun!

Summer Time

2011-06-25T14:07:00.000-07:00

Summer Time!

Summer is finally here! For a while there I wasn't sure if it would actually come. First because the weather. It was rainy and cold all spring long. Second because I was so anxious to finish up teaching school, especially since I knew I wouldn't be going back for some time. Just picture the cheesiest, happiest face you've ever seen me pull and that is how I look and feel right now as I am thinking about being done teaching for a while! I can't wait to stay home with my little gal and be a mommy!

I have less than a month to go with this pregnancy and I am feeling good! Derek and I have really been trying to get out of the house a lot and enjoy the summer before baby gets here. I am sure we will still enjoy the summer weather after she gets here, it will just be a little harder! We have gone to Provo Canyon a few times to build campfires, it is so nice and relaxing. We bring hotdogs, s'mores, books, and Derek's guitar. Derek and I have mastered our fires too! Both times we have built a fire, we have done it with one match. That's right! No newspapers, gasoline, fire starters, not even wood! Okay, just kidding we do use wood but that's it!

The baby belly.... Take 1!

The baby belly.... Take 2!

Our awesome one match fire!

Rock Canyon has become our new best friend. We go rock climbing there and the other day, we even hiked up the canyon and had ourselves a picnic! This turns in to be quite the task for me. I actually don't rock climb, I just save Derek's life as he rock climbs! The hard task is hiking up the mountains to get to the rock climbing walls! Iwalk a few steps, take a break, walk a few more steps, take another break. Eventually we make it to where we need to be! It is good exercise! I don't think I will be able to join Derek for very much longer. I'll just THINK about taking a few steps and need a break! Derek always feels bad that I can't climb, but I love being up there with him, climbing or not!

Derek looking at the wall he just conquered!

The wall Derek conquered! He climbed up the crack. It is actually pretty hard and a little painful or should I say a little hard and pretty painful! He had to jam his fingers into the crack and climb that way!

Rock Canyon Baby!

This summer has been so fun so far! Derek is super busy with school and work, but when he does have free time, we take advantage of it!

Baby Girl!

2011-03-10T16:39:00.001-08:00

It's a girl and Derek and I could not be more excited!

Here are some pictures of our sweet little princess! She was so cute at the ultra-sound! She was just all curled up the whole time and I mean ALL curled up. At one time she had her knees all the bent, head touching knees, and arms by her head!

Here is her leg! I think she has her mama's calves! That is a nice looking leg though!

Here are both of her legs. This is a front shot... Look at those little feet touching each other!

Here is her arm and her head! It is actually both of her arms. The funny white thing coming off her face is her other arm!

Our paper chain ceremony! The last chain was pink! Mom, how did you know?

Derek and I took turns ripping off the chains everyday but it was only fair to both rip the last chain!

This is a picture of Derek and I right before leaving for the doctor's office!

After we found out that it was a girl, we decided to go shopping! I could have spent hundreds of dollars on the precious things they have for little girls but I held back and only spent 10 dollars! I am pretty proud of myself!

This little cute thing is for newborns! It is so tiny and so sweet! I can't wait to put our little sweatheart in that!

I thought this was just the cutest thing! It comes complete with ruffles on the bum-bum!

I found this little Valentine's Day shirt at Babies R Us for about $1.60. How could I pass that up? All I need now are some light pink leggings, a little jean skirt, and this baby girl will be ready to steal some hearts!

These books were not included in the 10 dollars! I wish they were though! I got these cute little board books for baby girl! I LOVE BOOKS!

I know this is really random, but it is hilarious! One day I came out into the living room and see Derek like this! Not only is he like this, but he is out cold! Who could sleep like that? Well, I know one person! My D-rock!

Yep, out cold! Haha! I couldn't stop laughing! I'm not sure what is by his nose, but I know it's not drool or boogers! Here are a series of pictures of Derek! I love them! He was doing homework while I was putting together our new bookshelf. Derek and I got a wild hair to get a bookshelf because we had no where to put our books/movies/decorations! We've gotta quit getting wild hairs, they are costing us!

Derek hitting his head against the wall! He's not really physically hitting his head against the wall but he is mentally!

I love the honey bunches!I hate the homeworks!Here I am doing what I do best... putting things together! Love It!

The finished product! It adds so much to our apartment and it is so nice to have a place to put "stuff!" I feel very less junky.

Family Love!

2011-02-11T19:49:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I just can't believe all the love and support I receive from my family! The other day I asked my mom if I could borrow some of her walking videos, and if she would get me some of the Melalueca prenatal vitamins. Well, she is such a sweet heart and in two days there was a little care package from my mom with the sweetest note. What a sweetie! Not to mention a gift card for Derek's birthday. Derek's parents also sent him some money and some things we left over Christmas. We are so spoiled! I just sat back and thought, wow, what awesome families we have. I am often overwhelmed by the love and support our families are to us.

Last week, Lindsay and Jeff came to visit! It was so nice. It was perfect timing because I was on the verge of a meltdown. I had just been feeling so sick and I was really tired of it and Derek started working evenings and I was just really struggling. Well Jeff and Lindsay saved the day. They came down to Utah and it was so relaxing. It was so great to have company. Here is a picture of Derek and Brett playing the guitar.

Here's the little princess just jumping away! It's so cute, she jumps on one foot and loves it to death!

2011-02-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Derek!

Yesterday was Derek's birthday and wow, what a great day! Derek and I both got work off and had the most enjoyable day. I kept thinking to myself... Man, I could do this everyday! I know that a day off was much needed and if I had everyday off I would not enjoy my time so much but wow, it felt nice!

I woke up early (semi-early:)) and decorated our house for Derek! I was so excited about decorating for him I could hardly sleep. I woke up probably five times and would check the time or the color of the sky to see if I should get up yet and decorate. Anyway, I learned a great lesson... you get what you pay for. Haha! Look at this Happy Birthday sign from the dollar store. Anything look a little off? How about the double A at the end of birthday!

I ended up just getting caught up in the birthday spirit and went to the store after decorating to get supplies for a nice breakfast in bed for Derek. He ended up waking up and doing homework while I cooked breakfast but we went back in bed to eat breakfast!

Here is the nice "cake" I made for Derek. Derek and I are not the biggest fans of cake, so I decided to make his favorite desert instead... FRUIT PIZZA! I made a cute 23 out of grapes because I felt like I needed to practice my creative skills before baby comes!

Speaking of baby! Here's the bump! I know it's not very big, but baby is growing everyday! I am already a proud parent... I went to the doctor today and baby had a strong heart beat! I was so PROUD! I'm serious too, I am proud of my little nugglet for working so hard to develop and grow!

ROCK CLIMBING!

2010-10-19T20:48:00.000-07:00

Derek and I got a wild hair the other day and decided that rock climbing should be our new hobby. We went to a rock climbing wall in Provo and it was so much fun! In fact, it was so much fun that we went and got Derek an early Christmas present. Rock climbing shoes and a harness. It was awesome because when we were at the rock wall, we met a couple there and we started talking. Well, they invited us to go rock climbing with them weekly in the mountains! We are pumped. We really want to get into it but we don't really know what we need to start, so this is the perfect opportunity to learn!

So, we decided to get plain t-shirts and decorate them as our official "rock climbing" shirts. It was so much fun! Derek, being the awesome man he is, designed some sweet shirts. We bought our shirts, bought the supplies and went to town. It took us two evenings to finish them but now we are wearing them with pride! Derek working on his shirt!
My completed shirt!
Derek's completed shirt!

THE RI-ZING BLING

2010-03-11T15:46:00.001-08:00

Here is my ring! All I need to say is that I love it and I am so proud of Derek for picking it out all by himself! He is so awesome!

Derek!

2010-03-08T16:02:00.000-08:00

I'm Engaged! I am so excited and I want the whole world to know! Derek proposed to me on Saturday, March 6th and it was perfect. He totally made it a huge surprise and it was one of the funnest things I have ever experienced. The story goes like this: Derek told me he had to go to guitar lessons at five and then to his basketball game at six. He dropped me off at my house at about a quarter to five and I was just relaxing and talking to the fam. Well, my parents wanted to take me out to dinner so I was excited to go to eat with them. Well, everyone was really chill so consequently I was too! Well, my brother Nate called my dad and wanted us to come walk through the new building on campus that he has been working on. I was excited because I had heard it was awesome so I wanted a tour. So we drive in town and go the building and meet Nate there. Well Nate acted like he didn't even know I was in town. He was like, "Hailee, I didn't know you were coming! That's awesome." He was an awesome actor. So Nate shows us around and I am just enjoying the time wishing Derek could be there with me. (According to my mom, I said I wished Derek could be there about six times :) So Nate finally took us to the roof of the building and I loved it so much. It felt a lot like I was on top of the world and the temple was so pretty in the background. So Nate continued to walk me around the roof just showing me around. While we were walking we had an interesting conversation.

Me: Nate, this is where I want to be proposed to.
Nate: Oh, really?
Me: Yeah, it's like you're on top of the world, and just look at the temple. It would be really unique.
Nate: Yeah, that would be different!

One minute later that dream came true! haha! So we kept walking and as a side note I had no idea what was about to happen.

We kept walking and all of a sudden I see a camera on a ledge, a nice camera. I asked Nate what that was about and he just said it was a contractors probably. I was thinking that was a pretty stupid contractor to leave a camera out in the freezing cold weather. Then I see Derek climbing up the ladder. I was taken by complete surprise that I didn't know what to do. According to Derek, I greeted him just like I do every time I see him with an excited, "Hi Derek!" I climbed up the ladder to meet him and he read me a poem he had written. He then got down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. It was awesome!!! I said yes....twice! He put the prettiest ring I have ever seen on my finger and I love it. More than it being completely gorgeous, I love the fact of what the ring represents. Every time I look at it I feel so lucky to be the gal who gets to marry Derek and to live my life and forever with him.

Afterwards, we went to his house and his sweet family had a nice dinner all set up for us, music playing in the background, and candles. They congratulated us and left! It was my favorite dinner from Applebees, Fiest Lime Chicken! Derek knew that I loved that! He is so sweet! We had such a fun night!

One of my favorite parts about this whole deal is that we had to wear hard hats and orange vests! I LOVE it! It was so awesome! Here are some pictures!

Nauvoo

2009-08-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

This summer has been such a blast for me. I start school in a week from tomorrow and I am a little sad to see all my free time go, but I feel like my summer has been so full of fun and relaxing. The icing on the cake was to go to Nauvoo! I love that place!

We started our trip by going to Mt. Rushmore. It was really neat!

We stopped at Winter Quarters which is now known as Omaha, Nebraska.
OMAHA, O! What a city!

Me and Trev in the Winter Quarters visitor's center trying to pull a handcart. It was really easy. That is until they put the littlest rocks underneath the wheels!

Trever was being so funny on our drive. There were hundreds of miles of corn right outside our windows and Trever thought it was so funny. About every minute or so he would look out the window, smile, and say "corn, again" Finally we told him he was over-doing it a little so I would catch him looking out the window with the hugest grin on his face. I could tell that he wanted to say corn SO BAD! Every once in a while when he couldn't take it anymore, he would cover his mouth with his hand and say, "corn, again." It was so very funny!

This is the most beautiful temple.!

I had to buy these Nauvoo pants above because of the picture below. If you notice below, my left ankle/leg is swolen compared to my right leg. Well, the mosquitoes really enjoyed biting me. I guess I had a reaction to them because the next day my leg was twice its size with these huge red, hard welts all over them. It was nasty.

Oxen Ride!

The old school house in Nauvoo. I had to get a picture quite naturally! My classroom is bigger than this whole house!

This is where Joseph Smith, Jr. , Emma Smith, and Hyrum Smith are buried.

A crazy green nut we saw laying on the ground.

Dad fell asleep in the park during this amazing event! Joseph and Emma (the actors from the pageant) came out to this little opening and recited some of the letters that they sent back and forth. It was so awesome! Trever wanted to copy him and there is the cutest mama I have ever seen and she's my mama!

The Trail of Hope is this long stretch of road that the saints walked down as they were leaving Nauvoo. It was so sad for me to see this. The picture below is what the saints saw as they were walking down the trail of tears. The temple that they worked so hard on!

I don't know about you but I think this car's plates say "I love butt!"

4th of July and CELEBRATION DAY!

2009-07-15T07:05:00.000-07:00

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays! I just love it because it is so relaxing and you can do whatever the heck-fire you want to! I am also so grateful to live in this free country, I feel so very blessed! One of my biggest dreams of my lifetime is to fix up an old house and put a flag and a flagpole in the front yard with lights shining on it! Ahh! I would just love that!

My roommates and I woke up on the fourth of July and started getting ready for a fun-filled day. We all got in our red, white, and blue outfits, painted our toenails, and did our hair all fancy! Then we went to the parade. After an hour and a half I got tired of the parade so I went home and started working on this masterpiece. It was my first attempt at fruit pizza and I felt like it was a success.

FUNNY STORY ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!
At the parade, we were standing behind this guy that was so funny. You know those people in the parade who carry the banners before the float? Well this guy wanted to make their job seem important and exciting, so every time they would walk by he would yell out, "Turn the Banner! Turn around!" He would keep yelling it until the people would make a 360 turn with their banner. It made everyone smile, especially the banner holders!.

On our way to the store for one of our famous popsicle picnics!

One of my friends invited us to go play softball with him and a bunch of other guys! I thought this was a perfect time to sport the converse shoes! I even played in the Statue of Liberty glasses. I thought they might help me hit the ball, but no such luck!

Celebration Day!

On Monday, my roommates and I dedicated the whole day to celebration! It was such a fun day! We were celebrating myself taking a hard, necessary step in my life and Michelle's birthday which is coming up on the 16th. We went to the temple in the morning, ate the yummiest sandwiches at Einstein Bagel, took pictures in a photo booth, ate at Macaroni Grill, longboarded at the park, and jumped off a hill and took pictures!

If you are wondering who took this picture, I will tell you! We put me and Ashlee's longboards on top of each other, and set the camera on a timer. We pushed the button, ran up the hill, waited for the light to stop blinking and jumped! (Let me just say that we didn't get it on our first try, or our second, or our third, etc :)

Ashlee just loves her greens!

Michelle just loves her sweets!

We had four deserts at the Macaroni Grill. It was ridiculous. It was only forty cents more to get a salad and a desert with our meal, so of course we all did it! Michelle also got a cake for her birthday.

Sometimes when you roll down hills, you run into each other. Ashlee and Michelle experienced this! We had the most fun day ever! Thanks girls!

Show Bikes!

2009-07-03T17:03:00.000-07:00

The other day I was driving down the road and I came upon this bus that said CAUTION BIKES AHEAD! I immediately thought of the comedian Brian Regan and just started laughing. Ashlee was driving and I made her maneuver around cars so I could get this picture!! Like Brian Regan I thought to myself, "Ohhhh, 10 and 2, we're sharing the road with bikes, if I lose control I'll hit one of these cars with people!" Haha!
Here is a link to Brian Regan's Show Horses, if you want to know what I am laughing about!

http://comedians.comedycentral.com/brian-regan/videos/brian-regan---show-horses?title=brian-regan-show-horses&videoId=87741

Another funny story!

The other day Ashlee and I went on the BYU campus to run an errand but we didn't know where the building was that we needed to be in. We decided to go into the building we were by and ask where the building was that we needed to be in. Well this monsterous man held open the door for us and we thanked him. We went over to this desk and asked the lady there where this building was. Well this man came over in the same general area and people in the building started flocking around him. They were shaking his huge hands and saying they were so glad to meet him. Me and Ashlee kind of looked at each other like, who is this guy? We were standing right by him so he shook our hands also. We then left and were left to question which famous person we just shook hands with! It was so funny. We looked on the internet and our best guess was that he was Thurl Bailey. A retired basketball player for the Utah Jazz. So as Ashlee said, "We may or may not have shook hands with Thurl Bailey." He is 6'11" and has the biggest hands I have ever seen! Here is a picture of him!

Everything is prettier in Idaho!

2009-06-30T10:17:00.000-07:00

Everything might not be bigger in Idaho, but it IS prettier! IMHHO (In my Honest Humble Opinion)

Just take a look at these pictures of Idaho!

The pictures below are from a hike Ash and I took in Palisades, it was so beautiful and such an awesome day. Not to mention I got a nice tan :) It was such a fun hike because we went with her dad, uncle, aunt, and last but certainly not the least..... her 85 year old Grandma. I couldn't believe it. Her grandma came and hiked eight miles. It was awesome! We told her that she did such an awesome job and she would say, "Now I wouldn' t say that, I went really slow." Slow or not Grandma Frisby, you did an awesome job! I wanted to complain so bad sometimes on the hike when my back hurt or my feet were getting sore but I decided that with a 85 year old hiking the same hike as me, I should just keep my mouth shut!

These pictures are from the Yellowstone Grand Canyon! It is so beautiful! We (as in myself, Mom, Dad, and Trever) went to YNP with Dave, Alissa, the kids, and Alissa's mom! We saw a black bear and it's cub but I guess I didn't think it was cool enough to take a picture of it.

Here is the sunset I saw the first night as I was rolling into Rexburg!

On Sunday, the boys and their fams came out to the house for a nice BBQ and talk about a BBQ. We had shrimp, hotdogs, hamburgers, and chicken to choose from! It was so yummy. Dad pulled the four-wheeler out and everyone was having a ball!

Here is Nate, Elisa, Brady, Claire, and Christian. Don't worry they didn't all go on a ride at the same time!
Brooklyn was the lucky duck who was the only child from her family for a night! Grandpa let her drive the four-wheeler! She did an awesome job!

2009-06-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

Blast from the Past

Here are some pictures that I found on my home home computer. My home home means Rexburg! I love that place! These are pictures from the past but talk about a blast!
Here is a picture of Ash and I at Christmas time. We went shopping in Idaho Falls and I bought this I-spy game for my first-grade class. Of course we had to try it out to see if it was a good game or not. It was an I-spy 3-D game and these are the glasses that came along with it! I don't really know what to say about my outfit, all I can say is I'm embarrased!

These pictures are from a place called Jump On It. It is a place with tons of trampolines hooked together and you can just jump away. The whole fam came down for little Brett's blessing a couple of months ago. Above is a semi-boring posed smile picture, but below is where it's at. I look like a rock star. I would way rather have a picture with rockstar hair than a posed boring picture.

Happy Birthday Lindsay! (six months early)

2009-06-08T22:21:00.000-07:00

This is a surprise for my sister Lindsay! She has wanted me to start a blog for a while now and I decided that I am going to, just for her!! Well for me, too. Mom, this is for you too! Okay so I am going to blog for all those who want to know about and SEE what is going on in the life of HAILS!

My Trip to Texas... thus far!
Me and Bretty waiting for dusk so the millions of bats would fly out! SCARY! I always hold Brett in public so people will think that he's mine! I like to play tricks on people's minds. He looks so much more like me than his real mother... blonde hair, blue eyes. All right I'm sure everybody knows who's child he really is. I am proud to say though that I have been referred to as "Auntie Hails who makes everything better!" Usually only mothers can make everything better.

Here are the millions of bats! I don't like animals at all but if you ever pass through Austin, Texas you should see this craziness. Over a million bats fly out from under this bridge and it is wild. We were standing right on top of the bridge that they fly from!

This is me struggling to get up all the steps at Mount Bonnell. Rumor has it that there are only 99 steps to get to the top. 99 steps, my bum! There were totally 102 and I counted every one of them. I know how to count really well too because in first grade you practice counting to a hundred many, many times. I'm a pro. There were definately 102 steps.

I sure know how to be a cheeser. The only problem is that I only want to be a cheeser when I choose to be. I didn't choose to be a cheeser in this picture, it just happened. Darn it! I tried really hard to hold Austin in my hand so I could sing, I've got all of Austin in my hand, I've got all of Austin in my hand, etc. This is the view at the top of Mount Bonnell. You can see all of Austin on this side and on the other side you can see the beautiful Colorado River. It is great!

I know for a fact that this is a forced smile! I was so hot and tired and sweaty! We went to San Antonio to visit the temple. It was nice and the temple...Beautiful!