January 2013

Well the first month of the year is coming to a close!  It seems like it has just flown by... heck, I can barely remember what we have done this month (let me pull out my handy dandy calendar so I can remember). Ah,  Yes!
Well in truly parental fashion (parents of young children anyways) we rang in the new year in bed...asleep.  Party animals, I know!  We had all intentions of staying up- even had the sparkling grape juice by the bed... and it didn't get opened until the next day- at dinner time!  But hey, gotta enjoy it while the kids don't care.  One day I'm gonna have to keep my eyes open just so I can shoo the kids off to bed afterwards.
We are finally enjoying a decrease in the amount of time that Ed spends at work.  (Yea for the end of the holiday shopping season!) Ed actually had a week of vacation from the 5th to the 13th- and we partied it up by staying home and getting stuff done around the house (yea us!).  We did take one day and went up to the Indy Children's museum - and we all had a great time. (The Indianapolis Children's Museum the the biggest and best in the world! We are so blessed to live so close.)  JD is growing so quickly, and he caught on to a lot of the different activities there fairly fast.  That week we did have the missionaries over for dinner one night as well.

  But the real highlight of the week was my younger brother's homecoming.

I made signs for him, and just about everyone was holding a sign- They read "Welcome home from Bolivia Elder Schafer, Uncle Corban, Son, Cousin, Nephew, Little Bro- I had people write a little note on the back of each sign that represented their relationship to Corban- so I wrote on the little bro sign, my dad on the son sign, etc.  

  My brother Corban arrived Saturday afternoon from Bolivia after serving his mission for 2 years!  It was wonderful!

 My dad stayed with us the night before, and after he got home, we had a little homecoming shin-dig at our house.

My Dad and brother 

 We were even able to include my sister (who lives in Utah) in on the whole thing at the airport via skype- on my phone!!

Amazing technology! Funny enough, the advancement of technology in the past 2 years had Corban pretty baffled.  I think he's getting used to that (and speaking only English again).

We even got to go down to Franklin ward this past Sunday to hear Corban give his homecoming talk in church.  It was great to hear him speak.  And he has roped me into speaking in the Evansville ward with him in two weeks... lucky me! (note the sarcasm here ;-) Actually I am looking forward to it.  I haven't been back down to Evansville in a while, and I get to do something I haven't done in years... sing with my dad and brother in Sacrament meeting.  Wish us luck, we need it!

And I can't forget, we had a big birthday in the Hay household on the 18th!  My baby boy is now 1 year old!  He is the sweetest, most cuddly little thing, running around the house and keeping momma busy.  He eats SO much!  And it shows!  The boy is in the 98th percentile in both height and weight (31 3/4 inches, and 26lbs 11oz), and greater than 98% (20 inches)  in head size!  I gotta biggin'! We didn't do much, but we had birthday pancakes for breakfast and cupcakes after dinner! And he got a great ball pit from his Opa that he and his sister LOVE playing in!

Other than that, I have just been trying to find a good routine, and trying to keep my sanity most days ;-)  I never realized just how hard being a stay at home mom would be.  At least when I worked, I got a break from work and from home.  Sure, I was still busy as all get-out, but I guess what shocks me is how I still can't manage to keep up with the laundry, the cleaning, the dishes, and the cooking.  And I'm home most of the time!!!  Amazing how busy two little ones can keep you.  But around here, we just keep moving forward and improving day by day.  That's really all you can do- keep trying to be a better person, and keep moving forward.
Well that's all for us, and for the month of January.  Hopefully I'll get a little bit better about updating this. Don't hold your breath, but my goal is at least twice  once a month! Until next time!  Our love to all
The Hay Family