Giving Thanks for Cowboy Boots!

I am going to start off a little side tracked. Can you believe that? I never get side tracked...yeah right! Hope you like the Christmas music. At Greg's request we had to stick with the Louisiana/Hogwash theme and give you a little Harry Connick, Jr.

Now back on track...

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving this year!

Pawcaw and Nana came up for their first Thanksgiving in Tennessee. They even brought Aunt Tiffany (Greg's younger sister) and Uncle Ray. John Reagan had lots of fun and went full blast until company left Saturday morning.

Before I get into the story good, let me explain where "Pawcaw" came from for all of you who are wondering. Pawcaw and Nana took about a year and a half to decide what they wanted John Reagan to call them. They wanted him to come up with his own name for them. The problem was...he never called them anything because he didn't know what he was supposed to call them. So we told them they had to make a decision. They decided on Grandpa and Nana. Then when they came to visit in May, John Reagan kept getting Pawpaw and Grandpa confused, and it came out Pawcaw. Of course Pawcaw loved it, hence the name.

Getting back on track again...

When Pawcaw and Nana arrived Wednesday around 11:00, Daddy and John Reagan were at the store. As soon as John Reagan entered the door, the hard work for Pawcaw and Nana began.

First thing Pawcaw had to do was let John Reagan ride the "bull." Pawcaw and Nana start a lot of things that Mommy and Daddy don't want to follow-up with when they leave.

Then they had to get their play time in with both John Reagan and Evie. This was later Wednesday night. Pawcaw and Nana do do a good job wearing the kiddos down, as you can tell by this next picture.

I don't know which one fell asleep first. All I know is neither Nana's nor my flash woke Pawcaw up.



Turkey Day is Here!

This is just to show you how much hard work goes into frying a turkey. You can soon look forward to Greg's first post..."The Anatomy of Turkey Frying!" Yes, I am going to be brave and unleash him on the blog. Scary!
The next couple of pictures entail what takes place while Daddy is frying the turkey!

This is one of my favorite pictures of John Reagan! He was having fun running around the backyard doing whatever pleased him until Pawcaw joined the fun.

Pawcaw has lots more muscles than he did when he arrived. He spent many hours outside swinging John Reagan.

Now for the Turkey Carving!
It took 3 generations of Hasley men to get this one right...lol!
I will get a comment from Greg on that one.

We had The Amaro's for our Thanksgiving guests also. John Reagan and Abby play so well together, and they are a lot of fun to watch. After lunch, John Reagan wanted to go for a ride in Pawcaw's truck. So Pawcaw, Nana, John Reagan, and Abby took off. They were gone for quite a while, which we later found out was because they ended up at Wal-Mart. That is no shocker if you know Nana. And for those of you who know John Reagan, you know he likes horses and bull riding, so he and Abby got cowboy hats out of the whole Wal-Mart deal. It started out with John Reagan wanting the black hat and Abby wanting the red hat. By the time they got home, it had reversed.

Here are the two cuties sporting their new look! They even had the horse to go along with the look!

And here are Greg and Mike sporting the great new look. Sorry Kristen, you weren't getting cropped out of this picture because it's the only one I got of you.

On "Black Friday" I usually stay home. I hate shopping in crowds, so it is not the day for me. Since we had company, I didn't have much of a choice, and it was because of the men, not the women. We had to make a trip to Bass Pro Shops. For Greg and whatever men are here for Thanksgiving, this is nothing new. They usually go out while the women stay home and decorate. I don't know why we decided differently this year, but we did. So this is where the cowboy boots come in. Since John Reagan finally got his cowboy hat, Pawcaw and Nana had to go by him some cowboy boots to go with it.

Here John Reagan is waiting on us to leave. Sometimes when Greg and I don't get out of the house fast enough for John Reagan, he goes and sits on this overhang by the step waiting for us. Well with 6 adults and 2 children, we weren't fast enough for him this day.

We had a great time shopping for boots in spite of the crowd.

When we got home Friday night, John Reagan was nice enough to share his hat (temporarily) with Evie.

We have a picture of John Reagan putting the hat on her, but this was the better picture of Evie. Isn't she a cutie?

John Reagan is taking some much needed R & R here on Daddy's back. They were watching "Elf." It's tough being a kid, don't you think?

The R & R didn't last long though. He was too excited over those cowboy boots. He kept putting them on, taking them off, and putting them on and taking them off. As a matter of fact, when Pawcaw and Nana bought his boots, they had to buy a pair of long socks too because John Reagan wouldn't take them off. What can I say? He's our little cowboy...for now.

After Pawcaw and Nana left Saturday, John Reagan wanted to catch up on some Max time. We could NOT convince him to wear another pair of shoes outside so he wouldn't get his new cowboy boots dirty. He WANTED the boots...and of course the hat! Can't forget the hat. On a side note, we have not left the house without the hat since Pawcaw and Nana bought it. Yeah for Max. He has now had his first cameo appearance on the blog to go along with Duchess.

I don't know if Pawcaw wore John Reagan out more or if John Reagan wore Pawcaw out more. One thing I do know is Evie slept all day Saturday. From about 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., I think she was up for a total of 3 hours, and I am being liberal with that amount. She loves company and doesn't sleep as well when we do have company.

I have to add here...there are a few things I have learned about myself since I started this blog. One is that I know a good bit more about computers than I thought and I have learned a lot more about them since. Two is I need to take more focused pictures (more of family and company instead of ALL my pictures being of the kids). And three, I am a lot more long winded than I ever imagined. I think this helps me get all of my words out that I am supposed to use in a day. I can't use them all on Greg or he would tell me to shut up.

One last note for those of you who I haven't emailed. Please pray for my dad as he undergoes quadruple bypass surgery this week. Since we will be in LA this week, I won't be posting anything for several days. You know what that means...another long one when I do get back.

Hope you are having Happy Holidays so far.

Brandi

What's Evie's is John Reagan's

From the moment we started bringing baby things in the house for Evie, we knew she would only know the life of sharing. I have said from Day 1 that until she has some seriously girly toys (and even then possibly), she will never know what it is to have her own toy or anything for that matter, except clothes. John Reagan has never worn her pink stuff.
So I am devoting this blog to the things that Evie has to share with John Reagan, starting with the bouncy seat.

Don't they look comfortable?

The carseat!

You would think John Reagan wouldn't be able to sit in her carseat. Think Again! Thank God John Reagan thinks his big boy carseat is better.

The bumbo!

I don't know how John Reagan gets into this thing, but his legs look long in it. In this picture he is watching "the big tv" and "the dv payer" at the same time. How do you like those skills? This was Evie's first time to sit in her bumbo. In John Reagan's defense, it was his first, then we passed it to Kenden, and now back to Evie.

Finally, the swing!

I can't believe the only picture I have of Evie in her swing is her first baby food. It took me a while to get John Reagan, but about a month ago, he was screaming "Dad, Dad!" Greg ran down the stairs to find John Reagan in the swing. He had locked himself in and needed help getting out. He even likes for us to turn it on so he can swing from side to side.

I sure am glad Pawcaw and Nana are coming up for Thanksgiving. They can swing John Reagan outside on his swing set till his heart's content.

I thought I would add a few more of my favorite pictures from the past few days. I used to think I didn't take enough pictures; however, since I have started this blog, I have decided I take too many pictures. The problem is we never get any pictures of us or other family because we are too busy getting ones of John Reagan and Evie. My holiday picture collection is lacking. We are usually too busy eating or opening presents.

On that note, John Reagan hasn't cared much about holding Evie since she was about a month old. He used to say everyday "see Evie" which meant he wanted to hold Evie. I guess it was Friday when I was sitting on the couch holding Evie and loving on her when John Reagan climbed up beside me and said "See Evie." At this point, she is almost too big for his lap. I let him try to hold her anyway. It wasn't as easy as when she was a few weeks old.

Greg was upstairs working, so I had to help John Reagan hold Evie and try to get a picture at the same time. I couldn't pass on the picture though because he was being so sweet loving on her. If you can't tell, John Reagan hadn't been up for long, hence the hair sticking out.

John Reagan is such a sweet big brother. He always wants to check on Evie, and he is constantly in her face. She doesn't know the definition of personal space.

Greg was trying to take care of Evie here when John Reagan and Duchess decided he needed some help. Good thing we only have 2 kids. Another one wouldn't fit in his lap. Good thing Max is outside too. That would make for an interesting picture, along with an interesting night.

We decided we needed to give Evie some more bumbo time during the day because she loves to sit up. Here was our first attempt at that. She did great. She stayed in it for quite a while, and she had some good entertainment too.

I love this look on John Reagan's face. He cracks me up.

They both like them some Blue's Clues!

On a picture note, 2 weeks and family pictures will be in. Then the pig's rear will lose top status. I needed something besides a blank face for the blog follower picture.

Jon, I am afraid to hand over the username and password to the blog. Once we unleash Greg, there is no telling what he will do.
Brandi

Music II

Thanks for the advice, Kelsey, on the help site. I actually had used that article and a similar one with the first music, but the problem all along has been that the particular song I wanted is not on a constant live stream on the internet. I had to download it to get it going period. So I was trying to record it in RealPlayer or something similar to see if I could get it to play on the blog. Needless to say, it is hopeless at this point. Therefore, I went ahead and chose some different songs that I can embed. HEADACHE! And a waste of my weekend. If I would have forgotten the first song and done it through playlist in the first place, I would have been done in a matter of 30 minutes instead of 3 days.

This is where I blame it all on Greg. When he came up with the blog name, he wanted to put some bluegrass music in the background. Naturally I agreed. We have been in search of the perfect bluegrass music. The music choice changed to Zydeco when we had our small group social this month that was based on Cajun food. We tried to download some good ole' Cajun music for the event. As a result, I decided I liked the idea of Cajun music on the blog versus bluegrass. In search of the perfect Cajun instrumental, I ran across the "Dularge Waltz." We loved it and thought it was perfect. Never mind that there is only one website in the entire google network that has the song. That should have been hint number one. Hint number two was that on the artist's website, he didn't even have the song listed. What is that all about? So now we have you some good ole', classic Hank Williams, Sr. Can you tell we are from LA with our first two choices here? Only to follow that up with one of the most traditional hymns ever written. This is Greg's favorite hymn, and I had looked it up before I decided on "Louisiana Saturday Night" and Greg decided on "Jambalaya." I couldn't resist leaving "How Great Thou Art" though because we both love the way this guy performs it. If you haven't figured it out yet, I grew up Methodist; hence, the traditional hymn. I just love 'em. Bet you didn't have me pegged for that one! Mom, I am sure you are extra thankful that we decided to pass on the bluegrass.

So enjoy the music. I did work hard on it! And did lose a few hairs over it! I am still leaving the "Dularge Waltz" on the blog though. Listen to it on occassion for me please.

Brandi

Music

Have I ever mentioned I hate computers? Just in case I haven't, I HATE computers. They know how to get the best of me. They are like "The Slowsky's" (Comcast Commercial) when I need to get something done fast, and inevitably the supposed "easiest" task will turn into a nightmare. I have been working on this music all weekend trying to get it embedded into this blog. Because I want this one particular song that is by no means a common, popular song, I am having great troubles. I have tried everything I can think of, so this is my last ditch effort. That is until I get Kristen over here for Thanksgiving....hahaha! Kristen, you didn't know I was going to charge you for lunch did you? Just joking, but seriously, if you have any ideas to help, please feel free to share.

Brandi

235909_DulargeWaltz.mp3

Randomness

It was a sad day today in the Hasley House.

We had to say goodbye to Fifi. We got up early (for us) and drove Fifi to the airport. John Reagan was so excited about seeing airplanes. Of course he didn't understand that Fifi was leaving him to get on one of those airplanes. He cried when Fifi said bye. It was so pitiful watching the crocodile tears stream down his face. He kept saying "Where Fifi goin'? I want to go see Pawpaw. Go to Weisiana. Where my Fifi go?" Thank God he fell asleep in about 20 minutes. When he woke up, he got to see some cows and horses, so he recouped pretty fast. Unfortunately mommy and daddy haven't. We sure did enjoy our time with Fifi; after all, she was here almost 2 weeks between baby dedication and surgery. Poor Fifi couldn't win for losing though. When she left Louisiana Breyden cried. When she left Tennessee John Reagan cried.
The bad news is I didn't get any pictures with Fifi for the week and two days she was here. Of course that could be because she hardly ever sat down between diaper changes, cooking, cleaning, washing, and whatever else I can't think of right now. John Reagan and Evie wore her and Greg out one day with around 6-8 poopy diapers between the 2 of them. I sure did enjoy the diaper changing break. I asked Fifi yesterday if she wanted to stay on as the permanent diaper changer with pay. She said she didn't think so. Imagine my disappointment.

We did hate to see her go. Thanks Mom for all the help. Despite the fact that you think we could have done it without you, we couldn't have. Greg would have been bald-headed before Thursday was over with...not even 24 hours of me being home. I can just see the look now that I would have gotten anytime I would have said anything to Greg. We were cranky enough with help. We can't say enough THANKS!!

Since I am too lazy to bring the camera upstairs and download some pictures tonight, I am pursuing randomness. The pictures below are ones that I wanted to add before I went into the hospital, but they didn't fit in with our LENGTHY story last time.

John Reagan likes to think it is Halloween any day of the year. Actually, he likes to play in my make-up. I haven't unpacked my make-up bag from when we were in Louisiana last. He will get it out of the bathroom, run to the stairs with the whole bag, and play with the eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss. Doesn't he do well at fixing his face?

Evie was sacked out. There was no waking her this night. I don't know how comfortable that is, but she sure is enjoying her time on Daddy's shoulder.

Evie's first dirty face! We tried some baby food because she wasn't sleeping as well through the night as she had been with just the cereal bottle. She loves some sweet potatoes! You would have thought she had been eating them all along. You can forget the sweet peas though...sure hope Caleb likes them since we passed 3 servings on to Meredith.


Probably 90 percent of the pictures I have of Greg and John Reagan (when he was a baby) are of both of them or at least one of them sleeping. I figured I better get a few of Daddy and Evie resting. The problem is Greg always wakes up to the flash popping up, so I never get him good and asleep. I am going to one day. He says he has to approve all pictures that go on the blog or Facebook before I put them on there, but what he doesn't know won't hurt him. I also benefit from the fact that he doesn't know the email and password to sign in on here. He can't delete them...haha!

This picture was all the way back in September. Mommy was tired and needed a rest. Apparently so did John Reagan. I think this is my only nap since Evie arrived, but of course Daddy was home this day and got a picture of it. My little buddy is so sweet. When he was a baby, he always knew when Greg was home or when he was on the road. The days Greg would go on the road, John Reagan would sleep late and let me rest. When Greg was home, he always got up early with Greg. I shouldn't say with Greg because he would get Greg up. Duchess gets her first cameo on the blog! Now I just have to get Max on here somewhere.


This picture is also from September, the 5th. Greg wasn't feeling well this day, and he was complaining of being cold and having the chills. I came downstairs to find him all snuggled up in winter clothes and the thickest blanket we have. John Reagan was perched on Daddy taking very good care of him. He always hangs around and loves on us when we aren't feeling well. He is such a lovable little boy. Good thing Greg isn't up here checking out what I am doing. He would thoroughly object to this picture...lol! I love it.

Crazy Days = Hospital Stays

Well I am FINALLY getting back to the blog. I actually get to write an update. WOW! It seems like it has been forever. We have had a crazy couple of weeks. I must warn you now though...this is going to be one LONG post. Prepare yourself.

We were chugging along just fine; we had our calendar all lined out until the end of the year and set to perfection...UNTIL...Greg's boss decided he wanted to schedule 2 meetings in Louisiana in the span of a month. Needless to say, he threw our schedule for a loop with everything else we had going on. Our November has started off with a bang. Our sweet, little John Reagan, who never overreacts to anything (yea right), got his first black eye halloween eve. He was getting in trouble for hitting Daddy when he decided to lay out in the floor in hysteria and in the process hit his eye on the corner of the coffee table. Thank God it is a round corner.

At least it isn't circling the entire eye! We got away with a light one.

We made it through our first crazy week without any further injury, and the excitement of Pawpaw and Fifi's upcoming visit helped us endure with a little bit of grace. Pawpaw and Fifi arrived on Wednesday the 5th. They were waiting for us when we made it home from church. We had one excited boy on our hands. Needless to say we were prepared for a late night. Halelujah for a somewhat extended stay. It is so nice to get a break because John Reagan constantly follows them around, "Pawpaw, Fifi, Pawpaw, Fifi." That is what we hear for the entire stay with every visit.

Evie didn't mind the company either. She thought it was nice having a new face to talk to.

We couldn't get Pawpaw to stay awake long enough to get a good picture. This is what little boys will do to you.

As you can see, he never lets up on Pawpaw.

We sure did enjoy our visit. That could be because we constantly left at least one child with them while we ran the roads and got things done. One of these things was Mommy's Lunch Out! Evie went on her first lunch date with Caleb and Hannah.

For those of you who don't live here in Tennessee, Meredith and Caleb are sitting by me and Hannah and Kimberly are across the table.

Hannah and Caleb outlasted Evie. She is passed out. Is there a baby in my arms? I can't really tell. John Reagan of course was shopping with Pawpaw and Fifi. Sorry Caleb and Hannah, you come in second to Pawpaw and Fifi. I was happy though because I didn't have to fight with him over the chips. If John Reagan would have been there, the basket of chips would have been in front of him.

Getting back to our company, the reason Pawpaw and Fifi came to visit was because Miss Evie was being dedicated November 9th. Here she is all snug and ready to head out the door for the big event. We love the way our church has baby dedication set up. It is such a great experience.

With John Reagan's baby dedication, we took the camera and ended up not getting any pictures because the church does a DVD that they give each family. So we didn't even take the camera this time. After it was all said and done, we needed it.

Here we are back at home. Daddy couldn't wait for me to get my hands out of the picture, and as you can see, it is rare to capture a picture of Evie that doesn't have at least a small part of John Reagan's body in it.

Evie is such a sweet baby! I want to squeeze her and love all over her just from looking at this picture.

We had to take some time and relax Sunday night after so many fun-filled days of running the roads and wearing our company down. After all, it is hard work entertaining. John Reagan decided he needed to kick back and read the toy catalog. Santa is coming next month, and John Reagan wants to be prepared.

Kids are such great entertainment. Who needs movies?

After our failed attempts to get Pawpaw and Fifi to stay until Tuesday, we said our goodbyes Monday around noon. Surely we would survive until Thursday when we were supposed to be heading to Louisiana for our second round of meetings. We got the house all cleaned up and ready for Mommy's company and sent the boys on their way. It was girls night at the house with some friends. No boys allowed, except Max, and he was going to be watching from the back door. Sorry Bunko Ladies that I don't have any pictures. I sat the camera out and intended on getting some good shots, but that never happened. I got too caught up in the dessert.

The countdown was on until Thursday. I had my Tuesday all planned out...get packed, catch up on the blog, get the house as straight as possible. Then Wednesday I would get all my errands ran. Once again I had my schedule down pat. And you can guess what happened next! Another wirlwind. While I was pregnant with Evie, I had several bouts of what I considered EXTREME indigestion. It started when I was around 4-5 months pregnant, and to me there was nothing else it could be. It would start out just below my rib cage...gas pain. Then it would radiate through my chest and shoulders, making me feel nauseated. No type of gas, indigestion, or pain medicine would even touch it. When I would get sick and throw up, it still wouldn't get better. The pain would go on for as long as 5 hours sometimes. The one time I did call the doctor, I got "the on call" doc who quickly informed me it was gas. The last time I had this problem was when Evie was 2 weeks old. Naturally I thought by now I was all better. Well, think again. The gas pain started about 3:00 Monday afternoon. I took a little medicine and was fine. At midnight it began to escalate to the point that I had had enough, and I was at the ER by 1:15. Greg wanted to wake the children and all of us go, but I told him I was not getting the babies up for them to sit in the ER for what I thought was gas. Yes, well...by 3:30 they were working on getting me admitted into the hospital for gall stones. Yes, that did mean surgery. Of course surgery wasn't until Wednesday. So I got to call Fifi up Tuesday morning after she had been home for a total of 12 hours and tell her that I was in the hospital and having surgery the next day. After she recovered from her state of shock, she hopped on the "hairplane" (as Breyden, my nephew, calls it) Wednesday and got here at 8:15 p.m., a full 48 hours after she got home. I thought I would get to come home on Wednesday too, but the doctor said that my gallbladder was so inflamed that he wanted to keep me overnight and run an extra round of antibiotics in me. Yippy! How exciting. The doc also said he could tell I had been battling this problem for a while and he guessed that is why God made women have babies and not men because he couldn't have endured that long. So ladies, pat yourselves on the back at the fact that a man admitted that...lol!

The good news is that after a day and a half of handling 2 kids on his own, Greg decided he didn't want to be a single parent. So mom has informed me that I now have job security. Nothing like a hospital stay every now and then to line the men out. Remember that ladies...lol! And now is where I have to say thank you to all of our friends for your prayers and support through this craziness that has been our week. We couldn't have made it without all of you. I know some of you say we have been stubborn and haven't asked for enough help, but believe me when I say, even if we didn't call on you, it was a great comfort knowing you are here for us. I pratically begged Greg to call a certain friend on Tuesday to help him with John Reagan, but he didn't want to intrude. We are so blessed to have such GREAT friends. I cannot say thanks enough.

I thought I would finish this LONG, LONG story off with something a little softer on the eyes. We had a little cabin fever today, so we took a short ride. John Reagan knows that in the colder months of the year, Mommy doesn't let him out of the house without a hat on. He grabbed his hat out of the floor today and put it on backwards. It was so cute I couldn't resist a picture or two.

Just to give you an idea of how hectic it has been and how long it has been since I checked the blog, much less wrote on it, I just saw tonight where we had a couple of comments on our blog name. Therefore, I am going to go ahead and add my blog disclaimer in right here...Jon, anytime you see a post on here from Greg, you can rest assured IT IS HOGWASH...lol!

Brandi

Under Construction!

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to let you know I am still working on our blog, i.e. music, pictures, and everything else...and no, I am not protesting photos (since Facebook and the blog don't have any pics of any of us). I feel like I have 50 things going at once and can't get any one thing done. Does this feeling ever go away? Anyway, I now have to cut it short because John Reagan is yelling at me to "come see me." That means pick me up NOW!! OMG!! HELP!! I have had one whiny child today and two that aren't feeling well. So I say, "Thank you weather for making my day fun today!" And now that I am typing with one finger, he is asleep!

Brandi