Field Trip to the Discovery Science Museum

Alec's class had another Field trip in December, this time to the Discovery Science Museum in Santa Ana. I had three boys in my car again this time, Alec H., Alec C. and Lucas. They were all three very well behaved and a crack up to listen to in the back seat of the car! At one point Alec asked me to put on his Christmas music and they all serenaded me with 'Do you hear what I hear?' Very sweet. It was a enjoyable morning with lots of fun activities for the kids. The museum is a very hands on place where the kids can touch and play with everything. Since there was a bout of the stomach flu going around the school I ended up following Alec around and dousing him with hand sanitizer anytime I could. I know, obsessive, but I REALLY wanted to avoid that flu this year!! Here are some pics from the day!

Alec's class outside the museum. Alec is in the front row with the sad look on his face. I have no idea what that was about!

Alec's favorite thing to play with at the museum was the sand and water table. It was a long table where the water started at one end and ran down the length of the table. The sand in it made it like a river. The kids could move and manipulate the sand to change the direction of the water. It was very cool!

Alec loved the rock wall! He could have stayed on that all day! He has become such a climber lately...anything that he can climb on top of, he is on it!

They had a room at the museum that was dedicated to bats. This particular exhibit in the room let the kids hear closer to how a bat hears. Personally, I just liked how funny the kids looked with the ears on!

Alec H., Alec C. and Lucas. Being my normal smart alec self (no pun intended) I had fun that day with both Alecs. Whenever I was behind them I would call out, "Hey Alec!" and wait for them both to turn around. I would then point and them and say, "Ha ha!! Gottcha!!" I know, I am a dork.

Since it is July...

...so I should post, right?

Gosh it is hard to even believe how fast this school year went. Especially from Easter break till the end of the school year. I blinked and it was over. Alec is going to be in the 1st grade. How weird does that sound? Hard to imagine that just one year ago we were racking our brains trying to figure out if we should even send him to Kindergarten and here he is, finished with his first year of school having done AMAZING work!

Kindergarten graduation was on June 15th. I have to say, I was a bit of a mess. I don't like change. I don't like saying goodbye. I don't like good things ending. I did not like that Alec was finishing kindergarten. I pretty much cried the entire ceremony.

Remembering back to Christmas and how Alec banned us from attending the Christmas show that he was performing in, we were quite worried about how the graduation was going to go over. I had talked to Mrs. Knapp and she was worried a bit as well. We considered going and hiding in the back of church so that he would not see us but then we thought that we would just attend as normal and make the best out of what he did. Believe it or not, there was not a moment's hesitation on his part. He walked up the isle, he stood on the steps with the other students, he sang his songs, he said his lines in the poem. I was amazed! What growth! What PRIDE I felt!! Mrs Knapp introduced each of the kids individually and told what they said they wanted to be when they grew up. The first child that they are introducing is Alec's buddy Jacob.

The entire ceremony was just so cute. They also did a slide show of pictures throughout the year. This of course made me cry more. I feel so blessed not only to have Alec in a wonderful school but also to have a husband who works SO hard so that I can stay home from work and help out in Alec's classroom. I loved watching the slide show and remembering being there for most all of the occasions from which the pictures came from. I really have the best job in the world.

After the graduation we went out to the lunch tables and had a small celebration with all the kids and their families. When that was over we headed back to the kindergarten classroom to pick up Alec's book that the teachers made him as well as his report card. I am SO pleased to report that he scored ALL O's!! WOW! SO proud!!!

Alec the morning of graduation. When did he get so tall???

Mrs. Rivers, Alec and Mrs. Knapp after Graduation. We love them so!

The Hawley Family

Blogging? What's that?

Ok, so obviously I have been on a blogging strike lately. I have had a ton of cute stories and lots of great pictures, but have I posted? NO! I blame facebook 100%. I am addicted. I need to stop, seriously. Ok, well at least cut down on it. :)

I will catch up on the last month (or two) soon but I had to get this story down before I forget.

I went into Alec's classroom on Wednesday to pick up Alec from school. Mrs. Knapp pulled me aside and said, "I have to tell you a story about Alec today!" She proceeded to tell me that Alec's good friend Jacob had a a ice cream purchased for him by his 8th grade buddy at lunch (Wednesday is ice cream day.) Jacob took one bite of his ice cream and hated it. He tried to return it to the ice cream lady to get something different but they would not let him. Apparently Jacob was quite upset by this and was starting to cry. Alec, who gave up ice cream for lent, not wanting to see his friend upset, went over to the ice cream lady and used his ice cream pass to buy a new ice cream for Jacob in the correct flavor. How sweet is that?? Gosh I LOVE that kid!!! He has SUCH a good heart!

25 Random Things About Me...

I did this on Facebook and thought I would post it here as well...


1. I am a terrible house keeper. I could be a good one if I wanted to, but I hate doing it. Even when I became a stay at home mom and major budget cuts came into our household, worked Gloria (our house cleaner) into the budget.

2. When my kids get older I would like to get into a nursing program and become a labor and delivery nurse.

3. I am a tap dancer…although I hesitate saying that since I have not attended a class since I was pregnant with Aaron. I really want to get back into it but I have not found the right studio yet.

4. My favorite time of year is the fall thru Christmas. I don’t like New Years…mostly because it brings on a sense of change and I don’t like change.

5. The only kind of change I am really in favor of is in regards to decorating. I could redecorate my house every couple of years if given the financial opportunity.

6. Adam and I would like to build our own house one day. We want a lot of land with a beautiful custom craftsman style house with enough room for not only an office and workshop for Adam, but a craft/sewing room for me AND lots of rooms for grandkids to come and stay.

7. I wish that I would have lived somewhere else before I got married. Don’t get me wrong, my parents were wonderful to live with, they are seriously the best parents in the world, but I wish I would have experienced a bit more of the country before being tied down to a mortgage, job, kids, etc. I think that New York City would have been a great place to live for a few years.

8. My best friend Carrie moved down to San Diego when she got married 8 years ago and I miss her incredibly!! We don’t get to see each other or talk as much as we like, but the connection of our friendship will never be broken! I secretly wish that she and Brian and Kasey would move back up here. Ok, maybe it is not such a secret…

9. I am a serious volunteer addict. I have a physical problem that as soon as someone asks for a favor or says that they need help doing something, my hand sticks right up in the air. It is almost an uncontrollable action, although I have been better about controlling it lately.

10. I have the absolute BEST family in the entire world. My Dad is a superstrong man who can make anything and will always be there with big open arms when his girls come crying to him (and we do still). My Mom is a SUPERWOMAN who will do anything for you and then when she is done she will apologize for not being able to doing more. My older sister Amy is seriously the smartest person I have ever met in my life. She is the girl I call on when I need to talk thru something and need a fresh perspective. She tells me what I need to hear, not just what I want to hear, but in a very loving way. My little sister Allison has the biggest heart of anyone I know. She would give you the shirt off her back, even though it is a designer original that she got for a rock bottom price. When I cry, I call these people. When I have wonderful news, I call these people. When I need a laugh, I call these people. I could not live life without these people.

11. I think that my kids are the smartest, most beautiful, talented, funny kids in the entire world…but then again, what Mom does not think that about their kids?

12. I am constantly amazed at my husband. He goes to work and kicks ass all day long. He will work day and night in order to provide for his family and allow me to stay home and us to send our kids to Catholic school. He has the strongest work ethic of anyone I have ever met. When he is done with work he comes home and has tireless energy with the kids. I feel so blessed that I have found him in life. He challenges me to be a better person thru his words and example. I love him with all of my heart.

13. I am not a photogenic person. Out of 20 photographs taken of me, usually 1 will come out ok. I would rather make a funny face in a photo to make it look bad from the beginning then to try and take a good one.

14. I suppose this one goes along with #13 but I am very critical of myself. I pick myself apart in pictures as well as the mirror and I also lay in bed almost every night and run thru conversations I had with people in my head and freak out about what I said and if it offended or hurt someone or made me sound stupid.

15. One of my favorite things to do is to bake. If I could bake something every day then I would.

16. I love sweets and baked goods. If I did bake every day then I would eat every day and I would be 300 pounds.

17. I hate, with a passion, cream cheese. I hate it on bagels. I hate it in dips. I hate it in desserts. I hate it in cheesecake. This has saved me MANY calories over the years.

18. I thought for years that I was allergic to cats. Adam has a cat and when we first got married my eyes itched for 6 months to the point where I rubbed them raw. I dealt with the cat but always kept my distance because of my “allergies” Last year I got tested for allergies. Guess what? Yeah, not allergic to cats.

19. I feel like rearranging the furniture in my office right now. I might just do that when I am done.

20. Don’t tell me I can’t do something. That will make me do it.

21. I have belonged to an online mom’s board for the past 6 years. The ladies on it are amazing and I consider them close friends although I have never met most of them. I was lucky enough to meet about 10 of them last year and it was both surreal and wonderful!

22. I am freakishly good at sports, even when I first play something. I am not great, but I can usually hold my own.

23. My Catholic faith is one of the most important things to me in my life. It guides me, provides comfort and promise, and makes my life complete. I wish that I was better at evangelization to share my passion of my faith to others. It is something that I pray about every day.

24. I hate to scrapbook!! I tried and have completed a few, but this last summer finally came to the realization that I just don’t like to do it. In an attempt to keep some memories down for the future I have an online blog. I don’t always update it as often as I would like, but I try. If you would like access to it then let me know and I will send you an invite, as the blog is set as private. The address is www.hawleyfamilyca.blogspot.com

25. I am a serious procrastinator. That is why it took me this long to make this list even though so many of you tagged me ages ago.

I am running around trying to get the house cleaned up before Adam comes home this afternoon and I see Ashley walking around holding a grocery bag. I look inside of it and she has a pair of shoes and her bottle. She is carrying it around just like a purse...too funny!! I guess I need to get her a little purse to put her stuff in!! hahaha! Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE having a girl??

Thursday 10

Another edition of Thursday 10 is upon us! I know I have missed the last couple weeks, but I will try to do better!

1. I can't believe I have not blogged about this, but Ashley started walking last week!! Last Tuesday, January 6th, I was sitting at the computer in the morning checking e-mails after getting Alec to school and I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was Ashley walking across the room!! I quickly grabbed my camera and brought her out to the family room and got some video of it. She is so funny when she walks because she looks like a little Frankenstein and she just laughs the entire time like it is the funniest thing in the world! She has been practicing more and more every day then about three days ago was when I noticed that when she wanted to get across the room she would walk instead of crawl. LOVE IT!!! My camera is at my parents house so I don't have the video downloaded, but I will have it by this weekend and put it on.

2. I finally caught Aaron saying his pledge of allegiance on video. I will add that on this weekend as well. I can tell that the novelty of saying it is wearing off so I wanted to make sure and catch it before he refused to say it anymore.

3. This weekend is our Goddaughter Kasey's 3rd birthday!! Adam will be in Arizona with his explorers all weekend but myself and the three kids will be heading down to San Diego to celebrate on Saturday. We are doing a turn around trip, so it should be interesting!!

4. My mom and I are having Geo Challenge wars on Facebook. It is too funny because two day ago I beat her by 4 points, and then this morning she called me to let me know that she beat my score by a couple hundred points. What did I do this morning instead of getting stuff done around the house? I played Geo Challenge. But guess what? I just beat her by around 1000 points!! haha!!! I know, we both need to get a life!!

5. Adam and I took Alec golfing for the first time last weekend and we had so much fun! We did a 9 hole course in Brea that is nice and cheap. Alec had a blast hitting the golf balls and sinking puts. He was EXHAUSTED by the end of the day and actually slept 12 hours that night!!

6. Happy anniversary to my Mom and Dad, celebrating 38 years tomorrow!! You are a wonderful example of a Christ centered marriage for us all to follow!

7. Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of my Dad's heart bypass surgery. He is still doing great and is enjoying life!

8. With the new year comes lots more planning of upcoming events. Tricia (my fellow room mom) and I are already working on Valentines Day party, Baby Shower for Mrs. Knapp, St. Patricks Day party AND Easter party. I swear, I am going to blink and this year will be over!

9. Congrats to my cousin Jason and his wife Cristina who just found out at Christmas that they are expecting a baby! They have a daughter who is 7 and are thrilled to be adding to their family! We love you guys!

10. Prayers please for Baby Jamie who 1 month old and in the hospital on a ventilator with RSV and major breathing problems. Looks like he is on the road to recovery but prayers are still needed. Prayers also for Adam's Uncle Dan who just found out that he has prostate cancer. They found it early and will hopefully be able to treat it with just radiation. Again, prayers please!!

Fun in the snow!

We were so lucky that Adam was able to take the two weeks of Christmas and New Years off of work! We had a list of things that we wanted to accomplish and/or do during that time. At the top of our list was to go up to the mountains and play in the snow. We decided it would be easiest to leave Ashley at home and just take the boys since she will was not quite walking yet. We also decided it would be best to go to Arrowhead instead of Big Bear since the drive is much easier on little tummies that might get upset on many turns. We headed up around 11:00 a.m. and got up there around noon. We found a great place to play in the snow and spent a few hours making snow angels, going sledding, and having snowball fights. The weather was beautiful with shining sun and by the end of the two hours we were tired, hungry, and WET!!

After getting changed in the car we headed into Arrowhead village to have lunch and walk around the shops. We ended up getting home around 7:00 p.m. Everyone was exhausted and we all slept very well that night!

Ralphy and Randy (AKA Alec and Aaron) all bundled up ready to play in the snow!

The boys making snow angels. It was not that successful since the snow was not very powdery, but still cute!

Alec, of course, found some trees to climb!

Aaron, the mountain man treking thru the snow!

Mommy and Daddy self portrait.

Christmas afternoon

Ok, so I am slowly getting thru all my Christmas pictures and getting them posted! Here are some pics from Christmas afternoon that we spent at my parents house. As usual it was a wonderful time filled with lots of food, fun and laughs!! My parents are so wonderful to host everyone each year!

Grammie helping Ashley open one of her gifts. She loves this musical wormie, as it has now become known as in our house!

Alec and Aaron opening their dress up Jedi costumes. This gift was a BIG hit! The boys have been chasing eachother around the house with their masks on while shooting eachother. I am trying to deal with the fact that my boys are actually boys and they like playing that gun stuff. If it was up to me they would just be hugging eachother and singing songs together. Thank GOD I had a girl!!!

Ashley opening one of her Christmas gifts.

Uncle Chris teaching the boys how to use the lap top that he and Aunt Ree gave them. They LOVE it!!

Alec opening his golf clubs from Grammie and Papa. He was SO excited!

Christmas Morning

As you can imagine when having three young children, Christmas morning was SO much fun! Adam and I actually woke up first and stayed in bed until the kids finally woke up around 7:30. We saw Alec and Aaron sneaking by our bedroom door, looking down into the living room at the Christmas tree. We called them into our bedroom and they came in running yelling, "Santa came! Santa came!!" We got Ashley up and all went down the stairs together. The first thing that the boys did was to go over and inspect the cookies and milk to see if they were gone. They were of course!

After looking at the cookies we led the kids into the family room to check out the stockings. As they dug thru their stockings (sees candy, flashlights, tape measure's, etc.) I made Ashley a bottle. We then moved onto the "big" presents under the tree. Santa brought the boys a Millennium Falcon from Starwars and Ashley a beautiful baby doll as well as a few other gifts. Something special that we do for the kids every other year (every year would be too much) is make a plate for them using a photo from that year on Discountphotogifts.com. They loved opening their plates! When we were almost done opening Adam brought out a gift from behind the tree for the family. I opened it and it was a Wii!!! I wanted one SO bad!!! He then brought out another gift and it was Wii Fit!! YEAH!!! FUN FUN!!! It took every ounce of restraint to not run and hook it up right at that moment!

After gifts and setting up the boys Millennium Falcon I made breakfast burritos for breakfast then we got ready and headed over to my parents house for our family Christmas celebration.

Mommy and Ashley opening her baby doll from Santa. She does not look too sure about it, but she did grab it after than and hug it while rocking and saying, "Ahh ahh ahh!!!"

Alec and Aaron opening their photo plates,

My three favorite Christmas presents!

Everyone happily playing with their gifts!

Christmas eve

So obviously I am a bit behind on my blogging, but hey, it has been Christmas break and there has been no school AND Adam has been home the entire time...we have been having some fun family time!

We had another blessed Christmas this year full of wonderful memories and loving family. Christmas Eve was spent at Adam's parents house as we do each year. We headed over around noon and then ate dinner around 2:00. We were able to get Ashley down for a nap during that time so we had a nice quiet dinner and she got a good rest in before the busy night. Around 3:00 we got dressed, did pictures in front of the tree and headed over to church so that we could get a seat for the 4:00 p.m. children's mass. We walked into the church around 3:20 and it was already packed! We managed to get a few seats in the front for the Moms (and Aaron, it turned out) to sit in but the rest of us stood in the back with the kids and the Dads. Since this mass was the children's mass Fr. Joe did a special homily geared towards the kids. MY child somehow ended up being the comedic portion of the homily!

As I mentioned, I was standing in the back but Aaron was in the front with Joan, Mom and Jeannie. At the beginning of the homily Fr. Joe asked all the kids who wanted to come up to the alter and have a seat on the steps. Alec refused to go up, but I saw Aaron being lifted over the front pew, but I did not see where he went in the crowd of kids. All of the sudden Aaron pops right around Fr. Joe's vestments right in the middle of the alter. All the church let out a cute, "Awwww!" Fr. Joe spoke for a few minutes and then came down and turned to ask the kids to all have a seat. Everyone did....with the exception of Aaron. He thought it would be more appropriate to stay standing right in the middle AND start picking his nose!! Now the congregation was snickering. Fr. Joe noticed what Aaron was doing and with great comedic timing, stood there, looked at him, and then finally reached into his pocket and offered Aaron his hankie. Aaron just looked at him, took the hankie, wiped his nose, then returned it and said, "Thanks!" By now the congregation was LAUGHING!! I SO wish I had a video camera on this entire exchange. Adam was outside walking Ashley around so he missed it, unfortunately. I will never forget that for the rest of my life!!

After church we headed back to the Hawley's house , changed into our pj's, and opened gifts and had dessert. When heading home that night Adam and I had the kids mesmerized looking in the sky searching for Santa's sleigh! FUN!! Once we got home we put out cookies and milk for Santa and then the kids went right to bed. Mommy and Daddy were not far behind!

All of us dressed up and ready to head to church!

Ashley looking so sweet in her Christmas dress! I had so hoped that she would be walking by Christmas as to not crawl around in the dress, but no such luck!!

My three beautiful children under the Christmas tree. I am so blessed!

All snug in our pj's ready to head home and wait for Santa to come!

Alec and Aaron setting out the cookies and milk for Santa!