Hayes Family Montage 2007

The 2007 Tractatus Trampoline Leaf Solenoid

I remember raking leaves for hours out in MomDad's backyard as a kid. They seemed to never stop falling and they covered every square inch of earth with a thick colorful coating. After moving to MomDad's basement, I was worried that I would have to revert to my childhood raking. Not so. Dad has more gidgets and gadgets for collecting the things that it's a breeze. I'd heard talk of the "Billy Goat" that gobbled the leaves in large quantities, and knew that would make things pretty easy. BUT, the leaf gathering is a cinch now that Dad installed the 2007 Tractatus Trampoline Leaf Solenoid. It is a huge leaf magnet buried about 2 feet under the tramp that literally pulls the falling leaves inside the net. Once piled, it makes for easy disposal....

And the kids have a pretty fun time playing in them too...

Here we were playing "Where's William?"


This one was the most enjoyable for all three of us. I don't know why I had so much fun hucking the kids so high in the air. And believe it or not, OUR kids, yes William and Mary, actually had fun getting tossed that high. Stay tuned for some video....

These two really are best buddies.

Don't you just absolutely love autumn?!

Pratt Family Update

Hey Family! Just wanted to post some more pictures of us so those of you who we rarely see will know that we do still exist. Barely :) Kaysia will be 4 months this week and is getting chubbier everyday. She is really interested in everything around her and has started playing and holding toys. About a month ago she found her hand and has been sucking on them none-stop ever since! She is constantly wet and frequently poopey...so she has a good thing going! Tyler is busy with school and work, but is doing an excellent job at balancing everything. And me...well i gave up watching 12 hours of tv a day...more specifically 12 hours of House a day and I now do quite a bit of baking, reading, and playing the piano. Oh and I do my best to take care of my baby...even though most of the day she is crying i somehow seem to make it through! Sooo that is us in a nutshell. We love you all and look forward to hanging out soon!

1st Annual Hayes Family "Birth-o-ween" Party

For those of you who weren't able to make it (MomDadTyLineKaiaCanyonHeathJoseph) here are a few pics of the party we had on Saturday to celebrate some of the birthdays that "fall" around this time of year. There were some great costumes and fun activities. Round two will be about the same time next year, so mark your calendars now....

King on the Swing

Check it out folks! Even Grandma and Grandpa can ride the "king swing" at Ty and Line's! Ya gotta love it, baby!

Lloyd Hayes Family Reunion

Hey Everyone!
As long as everyone is posting on the blog, I thought I'd get into the action myself. These are the only pics we took in August. As usual, I carried my camera all over the place and never took a single shot! Thanks to all of you who DID take pictures-----now our record is much more complete.

Labor Day Birthday Party

Fun times tonight everyone! Thanks to MomDad for hosting the event. The food was great, the company was pretty good, and the presents were awesome. We really missed you TyLineKaiaCanyon! It helped a little to have the life-size cardboard cutouts that MomDad brought back with them standing in the corner of the SportCourt. Here are some pics...sorry they are a little heavy on the jessejoniwilliammarynelson family...and sorry that I didn't even get a pick of the beautiful birthday girl (not dad, the other one).

Our Chunky Monkey!

Kaysia is almost 1 month old now and so I wanted you all to get the updated pics we have been taking. At her first doctors appointment she weighed in at 8 lbs 15.5 oz and was 21 inches long! Definitely a little chunker, but still cute as ever! She really is so much fun and Tyler and I love just watching her grow. Already she seems to be getting more and more personality and it is awesome to see her explore her world more with her gorgeous eyes! Enjoy the pics! Love you all!

Almost 1 Week Old Already!

Hello All! Well little Kaysia has almost been in this world for 1 week now and seems to change a ton everyday. Just wanted to show you the most recent pictures since she already looks different than the ones I posted before! She really is such a wonderful baby. She actually slept 4 hours between feedings last night and she went poop on que and went right back to sleep with her nuk like a little angel--which made Momma very happy! We really miss you all and look forward to seeing everyone soon. Hope everything is going well with each of you. We love you guys!

Kaysia Mae Pratt

Hey Everyone just wanted to introduce you to our beautiful angel! Kaysia Mae Pratt was born on July 2, 2007 at 7:54 pm. She was 7 lbs 15 oz. and 19 inches long. She definitely has a mullet but at least she has hair! She is perfectly healthy and hardly ever makes a peep! We absolutely love her and can't wait for you all to meet her!

Yes! First One to Post in May!

I was worried that by waiting till tonight someone would beat me to it and I wouldn't be the first to post in May. Guess I got lucky this time...

With only 20 days left in Virginia, this is the first of the last blogs I will write as a Virginian. Kinda breaks my heart in three. Nonetheless, here are some pics for all to view.

One of the last from Virginia...

P.S. Joni's Great Uncle Dustin died and left $2.4 million to "Joni's husband." Was kind of strange, so I decided to share it all with my parents and siblings...well, with those of you who remembered my birthday.... I waited and waited, Jen...I'm spending your split on a truck like Christian's.

Remodel pics---so far!

ARRRRRRRR!! Our snaggled tooth pirate!

Take a look at these pictures! One and two are different from 3 and 4. See if you can find which part of the picture is not the same! Kaden has taken a beating... and says that you should see the other guy! :) He has also become the wealthiest member of the household. Since the tooth fairy forgot to come each night the teeth were set out (three separate nights, three separate sets of teeth), she had a guilt complex and really loaded the kid up! So know we are taking loans from him and he's makin' great on the interest! There's a few more pics of the fam! Hope everyone is doing well and loving the weather! We're having all the seasons this month so enjoy!

Kaden's tooth

I think I can, I think I can....

Hey you guys!
I think that your brain befuddled sis has finally figured this all out! It totally helps that Jesse invited me to the blog again, under an account that I can actually use( he's so awesome!). I have to thank Jess for being my support through all this, (sniff sniff) he is so awesome, and we... the new Snyderly's in the ward....(sniff sniff) would just like to thank him for....everything!!!!!! (sniff sniff) We're sorry we don't have an updated Snyderly family photo, please refer to our cousin Cher!
I have included a great pic of my miffed up leg to give you all an idea what the last few weeks have been like. I've been having several surgeries, and my last on is on the 26th. I'm hoping to be feeling great and healed up soon! I love you and I hope you enjoy the pics of the cutie pie kids. We love you all!!! Good luck to you Jess and Ty during these last couple of weeks of school!

Easter Fun

So I'm on a roll (kaiser)

Three posts in one day. I think I'm setting a new record on our blog. I figured that since my family as been asleep for the past our (it's 9:30pm EDT), I might as well do some serious blogging.

Speaking of EDT, I've found that the whole Eastern Daylight Time and Eastern Standard Time (or whatever time zone you are in) can be quite confusing to people, and I think it is great when people aren't quite sure what to call it. Just the other day I got a message from a lady at work telling me to call Stan around 6 o'clock "mountain eastern time." That was a new one for me. But since I am in Stats for Lawyers this semester, I whipped out my calculator and figured out the mean and standard deviation of mountain eastern time. Needless to say, I decided to go with 6 o'clock central daylight time, and it all worked out.

Here are some more shots of the kids. Since no one has ponied up to Mom's request to post pictures (Karissa came close this week--I'm pulling for ya sis), I feel some sense of duty to vicariously post for you. And because I don't have any pictures of your kids, you'll just have to see some more of mine...

Easter pics of Virginia "Gang"

I'm Dreaming of a White Easter....

I guess that even the Virginians and all our good weather aren't immune from some cold, snowy springtime action. This snow fell a week ago Saturday. We woke up and all was white and beautiful. Made for some exciting easter egg hunting for the kids. A couple of weeks back we were in the 70s and 80s with some regularity and we thought it was here to stay. Today we have a "noreastern" coming through that has us on Tornado watch until morning. Lots of rain and wind. We're trying to get it out of the system so that we have some super hot and humid days while Mom and Dad...that should make loading the truck more fun...

The Mormons

I'm sure that most, if not all of you have heard speak or read about this documentary that is going to air on PBS at the end of this month, first of next. In case you haven't heard, it's called "The Mormons" and airs on April 30th and May 1st in two parts, one on each day. Looks pretty interesting. There's a little six-minute preview on the website linked above. It would be spiffy (yes spiffy) if someone with TiVo or a DVR of some sort would be kind of enough to record it (and burn it to DVD if you're extra spiffy) so that we could watch it at some point. Reward: You will be Spiffy, and I will think very highly of you--a double bonus.

The Second Anniversary of Her 30th!

"Hey look everybody, it's my birthday!"

Cherish it's your birthday...happy birthday Cherish...(pretend I'm singing sort of and bouncing my head and shoulders a little bit--maybe if you try it yourself it will seem more real).

Just couldn't let the day pass without posting your face on the blog and wishing you a most happy birthday for all of us in Virginia. I do hope that you got my birthday song on your answering machine and that you are listening to it over and over in the true spirit of celebration.

We love you Cher! We really really hope that you are feeling better and that your stone is no longer giving you grief. I haven't gotten an update for a while so I don't know where that is at, but you are still in our prayers. We can't wait to come live in your basement after Mom and Dad kick us out (course that won't be for another 4 or 5 years...we'll see...).

In the meantime, Happy 32! Kristen wanted to wish you a happy day as well, so follow the link for some more birthday wishes....

We love you Cherp!

Kristen Snyderly

(Sorry the audio got messed up on the upload. I'll see if I can get a better copy of the video up.)

Will the Artist

I've been meaning to post these pics for a couple of months now. I think it was around the first of the year when he figured out how to draw a circle, and then it didn't take long for him to put together a face. He draws them all over the place now (including on the window with a crayon just the other day).

Glad to be even again...

So much too soon: only three weeks left of classes; only three weeks till my birthday (i'm putting that on here so that as you regularly check the blog and as you are adding new posts you won't forget); 4 1/2 weeks till finals are over; 6 weeks till graduation; 6 1/2 weeks till we move back across the country; and about 8 weeks till work begins.

And I don't even have any robots...

Check out the krazy kiddos though.

St. Patty's to Easter Egg Hunt

Mommies

Okay, so I guess you can't post pics on a comment---at least I can't----so here they are! I just added the whole album from Faith's blessing day, plus a cute pic of Grandpa with two of his boys, and one Line sent me. There are also two very short videos at the end (because I didn't know my camera was set on video at first).

March 2007

Pics of Prego Mommies...

So Cher is going to have a baby in less than two months and Jen shortly thereafter, and these are the last pictures I have seen of both of them. Notice how they are both still in unpregnant form.















I would take a vote to see if Cher and Jen should post pictures of themselves in pregnant form for all to see, but I suppose that with the exception of TyLineKaiaCanyon and us Virginians, the rest of you are tired of seeing them and listening to them complain about how uncomfortable they are and...

I will hold the vote anyway. All in favor of postings of pregnant people say I...(Jesse speaking aloud at his computer) "I". Because I still live in Virginia, and Virginians are better than everyone else, my vote counts for one more than all the rest of you put together...and so does Joni's... and Will's...and Mary's...and Nelson's...and I'm confident they are voting with me.

Hit us with your best shot ladies...

Faith Isabella Hendrickson

I'm finally figuring out how to post a blog! Who is proud of me? And I've figure out, I think, how to attach the pictures. I want you all to know how much I love this little princess! She is a dream and I'm so grateful to be her mommy! I love all of you and I hope these pictures give you a good view of how incredibly beautiful our Faith is!

Happy St. Patty's Day (tomorrow)

"Nausea: a feeling of sickness with an inclination to vomit."

My apologies if the coloration of this page induces such feelings in any of you, but it was the only way to get us all in the true spirit of the holiday. then again, who am i kidding? none of you actually look at the blog page anymore. you simply read the email, hit delete, and return to your boring blog-less lives.

On a brighter note, Jim, our weatherman, is dead. we've been on spring break this week and until today, the weather has been perfect. we went to historic Jamestowne on wednesday--our first time there since moving here. there are two "jamestowns" here: the first is called historic jamestowne and it is a national park and is the true site of the first landing and fort in 1607; the second is called jamestown settlement and it is just an imitation of the original. we visited the latter jamestown in january and i sent some pictures then. the link below will show you our visit to the true jamestowne.

Historic Jamestowne

also posted on my picasa web albums page is another album of the past 2-3 weeks since Nelson arrived on the scene. i'll actually just post it right here. but go to my public gallery just the same and view the video of Nelson that I took just last night. he's a cutie.

1st March Installment

Who's Chubby?

After 18 months of training, she has finally learned who she is, even if she does get a bit carried away once she realizes just how cute she is being....

Who's Chubby?

P.S. Once you are on my Picasa web album space, if you got to my public gallery there is a video of Nelson when he was about a week old. I'll put a more recent one up soon.

February Family Fotos Minus Faith

Hi Everyone! Just wanted to share our February pics of Williamsburg and Island Park. They're great pics, but sorry to say we have no Faith. Her pics are on kodakgallery and I can't get them here. Karissa---email me some Faith! :) This has been a busy month all around the country! Ty and Line have a new house, Jesse and Joni Have a new Nelson, and Heath and Karissa have more Faith than they've ever had before. The new house is awesome, Nelson is soooo cute (both of them!), and little Faith is a beautiful angel-baby. We love all our "newnesses" and hope to see more of all three very soon! We had a great time at Island Park with all those who weren't busy with "newness". Hugs to all---enjoy the pics!

February 2007

Nel-da-son

This was Will's pronunciation of the little nugget's name for the first few days after he was born. For some reason Will couldn't get it to come out without the filler "da" in there. He has since figured it out though. Here are just a few more pics that i pulled off Bev's camera. More will follow shortly once I get them off my camera. We have some good ones of all the kids. Just thought you would like to see how this little guy is changing. He looks like a different person every day (today it was Martin Sheen).

More Nelson

More pictures of Nelson Maxwell

Jesse secretly sent me this one of the new little guy, which they actually adopted, though he didn't want to admit that to the rest of the family. Er wait, is this Will? Or Nelson? I can't remember for sure. Maybe it's both...

Nelson Maxwell Hayes

Not able to live but 4 days without his cousin Faith, Nelson ponied up and followed her into the world this morning at 5:02 am. Much like his new little cousin, he had perfect skin, with no blemishes, bruises, and very little of that white goo. He is a glowing little angel. Here are his stats:

Nelson Maxwell Hayes
b. 2/13/07 @ 5:02am
8 lbs. 11 oz.
20 inches long

Mommy and baby are happy and healthy! The album below has some first-hour shots of the little guy and his champion mom. More will follow when we take Will and Mary over to inspect him. We'll let you know how the vote goes on whether they want to let him into the family...

Nelson Maxwell Hayes

There and Back Again, A Law Grad's Tale....

From Jamestown to Joy Drive, it appears that the circle of life is a reality for some of us. You grow up, you move away, have a family, and then find your way back home. Just so y'all know, it's official: our new mailing address as of June 1 (probably a few days before that) will by 2 East Joy Drive. We've been watching the ads for a while now and found a nice basement apartment below this wonderful older couple. They said they wouldn't mind if we crashed their party for a while. In case you haven't heard, I took a job with Joni's brother at Compliance Management Inc. (CMI). We are super excited about it! Things are cookin for him right now, so it looks to be a great opportunity. Plus it will give Will and Mary an opportunity to try out the new moves I've been teaching them on your kids....

Speaking of Jamestown, this year is the 400th anniversary of the first permanent settlement by old John Smith. They are having loads of celebrations throughout the year. We went down to the settlement at the beginning of last month to check out the improvements. (see pics below) Y'all have four months to pay a visit before we blast off...better start looking for good airfare...

Jamestown in January

What do you get when you cross Superman and Richard Simmons?

Of course we all recognize this favorite friend of the feeble, pictured here with a helpless nun he has just rescued, no doubt, from some insufferable injustice. Just another typical day in the life of Superman.

And naturally, we all know about Superman's alter ego--Clark Kent, a dedicated, yet ordinary worker at the Daily Planet. Just add some glasses, a nice suit, and Lois Lane and you are set.

But what we didn't know is what Superman (not Clark Kent) does on his time off...that is, until now....

Watch out everybody, he can really turn things upside-down....






The tights come off...the briefs stay on...































And he can really work it....yeah baby! Can you feel it?!....

Interesting Article on Faith and Medicine

Here's an interesting article one of my friends, Matt Purcell, sent to me today. Matt and I went into the MTC together and lived in the same apartment together for about 4 1/2 months in Brussels. I talked him into coming out to W&M law school after he graduated from BYU. Matt's dad died of a brain tumor a week after Matt got his mission call. Mark Prucell, the elder referred to at the beginning of the article, is Matt's little brother. Pretty amazing story. Mark has fully recovered and was given the okay from his doctor to return to the mission field just 3 or 4 weeks after this incident. Something like a 98% death rate for people in his situation. Far as they can tell, Mark has no problems--no brain damage, etc. He had a little device put on his heart to keep it from happening again. This article explores a bit about faith and medicine and is quite interesting.

The Big Moment Has Arrived----the BVI Blog is born!

BVI Adventure

Okay, so I know I'm really slow-----I was trying to caption all our pics before I blogged it up, but now we all know how long that is really going to take me, so I'm just going to bag the captions (for the moment) and post our BVI adventure!
As you all know, we left on Monday, Jan. 8 at 11:45pm and flew all night (or at least 4 hours) to Atlanta, stopped there for breakfast on a 4 hour layover, and continued on to San Juan, PR, arriving at 2:20pm (or something close to that). Needless to say, we were wasted and we looked like we needed a vacation, so we caught a plane to Tortola and arrived at the Moorings (charter boat) base about 7pm. After a yummy dinner, we went right to the boat and went to bed!
After getting all checked out on the boat, we took off for the greatest 9 days ever! We are definitely going there with all of you some day!
So as not to bore you with all the juicy details of our super-relaxing, fantabulous, awesome trip to this gorgeous paradise, let me just say that we stopped in Binyard Bay on Norman Island (first and last days), Marina Cay, Virgin Gorda (several stops---the Baths, Leverick Bay, and Bitter End), Sandy Cay (for lunch one day), and Jost Van Dyke. We either anchored or hooked up to a buoy, whichever was available or most prudent. We did alot of snorkeling, lounging, reading,staring out at paradise, shopping, and especially eating. I must say that I was a brave snorkeler (for me) and did many very scary things and even lived to tell about it! So you can all stand proud, because your mother is not a wimp! (Dad wil confirm this, I'm sure......) The only thing missing was all of you----otherwise, this rates among the most superest vacations we've ever taken! I'm going to try to post a pic with a link to all the rest, but that could possibly take another week so if it doesn't work the first time, I'll just send the pics to you via picasaweb. We love you all----thanks for sharing our fun time!

Checking In From Virginia

Obviously one of the side effects of a five-week vacation is an acute inability to blog. As it draws to a close this weekend, I will be trying to bring myself back to reality, and this posting is a first step. I guess that also means that I will have to figure out which of the 6 Saturdays between each Sunday is the real one. The break has passed all too quickly--even more quickly, I think, than if we had gone out to Utah for a visit. We missed all of you too much. We missed all the fun partying in crowded, noisy rooms. But we still did manage to have some fun out here. Plus, Will was in special, full-time training, learning how to play the potty. The best Christmas present a little boy could ever give to a feces-fearing father. He picked it up pretty quick too, pulling out with a very low crash rate. All-in-all we enjoyed the time spent with just us. Here are some pics from our Virginian Christmas.

Christmas

We did have a good time. And I think we got to talk to all of you at least once over the break, most of you via video conference, so we felt like we were part of it a little bit. You were probably glad that we were all far away since 3/5 of us got nasty sick for two weeks (Joni and the baby somehow dodged the bullet even in spite of our efforts to bring them down). Chub is still trying to pull out of it, and only today began out-eating Will again. Her chubby little body isn't so chubby anymore...but she is still our little Chubby. Here are a few more pics from the end of the year to show how much the little rugrats have grown in the past while. Hope all is going well!

End of '06

Anyone want to go cruising?

Just thought I'd share my late Christmas present with all of you! Yes, Dad spoils me, and yes, it's the first time in 28 years that I won't be driving a huge maxi-machine, (except when it snows---then I still have the Landcruiser!). Sooooo----what do you think? Should I keep it?

This one below is actually not mine (obviously), but mine looks just like this. The one above is aactually the one we bought, but it's too cold to take more pics of mine today! It's a great color of blue, and the roof is also a dark blue. Here's a shot of the interior-- The real thing is actually much better than the pics. I guess I'll have to move to Williamsburg, since Jesse says it's going to be 77 degrees there today! Now maybe I'll be everyone's favorite Grandma, huh?! Love you all---have a great day! :)