Overcoming!

Before I start with the pictures, I have tell you that this blog is preaching to me. Most of you know that I have not been practicing any type of humility with this whole moving business. As a matter of fact, I have been in a bit of tug-a-war with God about the situation. When I came to the blog the first thing I saw..."For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Well well, who knew that when He gave me that verse to put on here He would actually use it to my benefit. Hum!

On with the story...

we have been busy bees visiting with friends before we leave. I am ashamed to say we have been spending more time with friends since we found out we were moving than before. We should have been doing this visiting all along. It's funny how something live moving puts things in perspective for us. The downfall is that after some time passes, we quickly forget the perspective we just learned and go back to our old ways. I hope this will not be the case for us once we get settled in Louisiana. We both would like for our life pace to slow down a bit.

We recently had dinner with several friends enjoying every one's company and catching up with friends who moved away a couple of years ago. My how our families have grown in just 2 years.

Every time Elizabeth would put the camera in Evie's face, she would either start posing or make a face. I just love this one. Cracks me up!

John Reagan of course was either too busy choking down his ice cream or running around like a mad man. He was having so much fun.
A couple of days later, we celebrated Caleb's 1st birthday with him. It was a little early, but when you have a sister who was due to arrive any day, you got to do what you got to do. As you can see, the kiddos got to spend some time in the water playing.
Evie and Samantha are just too cute!
I think John Reagan is probably being silly. He could be a little chilly though.

We were getting ready for our Small Group Social the other night, and we had to do something with Evie's hair. It is getting so long coupled with the fact that it constantly curls into her face instead of away from it, and we can't keep it out of her eyes. I decided to do piggy tails again. Of course she laid down and messed them up then wouldn't let me fix them, so she ended up partying with the hair in her eyes anyway.

"Why is the wash rag in the floor?" you ask. Who knows is my response...it must have been time for laundry day.

If you are a regular blog reader, you know my children can watch television...a good thing and a bad thing. They were completely engrossed in some Backyardigan's yesterday. Couldn't pass up this shot!

Today as I was downloading pictures for the blog, John Reagan was wanting me to set up his Lincoln Logs train tracks but he didn't want Evie to play with them. He began to take toys and trash bags and any item he could find and proceeded to build a barrier from the wall to the desk so Evie couldn't get to his train tracks.

You know I couldn't pass up on this one. He only played with it for 5 minutes then decided he would break apart the barrier and share with Evie. Hilarious! These two keep me on my toes. Of course he is now telling me all about how she messed up his choo-choo tracks. Fun stuff!

Now that I am on the path to overcoming after my preaching, I will let you go. I am hopeful I will continue to keep a regular post on here in the midst of everything going on. You might be short on the picture viewing though. Half of the pictures on here today were taken by friends then emailed to me. Man, I have been slacking.

Bye for now,

Brandi

Partyin' & Potty Trainin'

Life has been heading down the fast lane in the Hasley House over the past few weeks. I can't believe it has already been over a week since my last post. Crazy where the time goes! Where is it that time goes anyhow?

We have been running the roads trying to get in as many visits as possible with as many friends and family as possible. We went to visit my grandmother, aunt, and uncle the first weekend of the month. John Reagan and Evie have 2 great-grandmothers still living, and I try to get as many pictures as possible with the kiddos and great-grands, so we can have as many memories as possible. I didn't get as many pictures with Grandma Annie Rai as I should have, but I did get this one and a few more.

This isn't the best picture, but it is the full body picture. As you can see, Evie is almost as big as Grandma who is 5 feet and about 80 pounds. It is always so cute to me to see Grandma holding her.

We also took John Reagan and Evie to bull riding this past weekend. The PBR (Professional Bull Riding) was in town, and this was the second time we took John Reagan. He loves it. We weren't too sure how Evie would do, but she had a blast. Too bad I didn't get any pictures. You know things are crazy around here when I don't have a selection of 50 pictures to show you.

With all this running around we have been doing, we have been glad that we are officially potty trained. Well Greg and I have been potty trained for quite a lengthy amount of time now, but John Reagan is the newest member of the potty trained gang. Hallelujah! Do you hear the angels singing? Oh wait, that's just me. I wouldn't say we have been working on the potty training. Since John Reagan was a little younger than 2, we have let him work at the pottying at his own pace. About a month and half ago I told a friend that I could probably say he was officially potty trained but that he was using his pull-ups (from here on out known as Cars) as a crutch. Just before I said it I thought to myself, "As soon as you say this out loud it is going to back fire on you." Sure enough for the next 2 weeks he wouldn't even go in the potty. Then he finally started back but still wanted his "Cars" on. The humor in this story is what finally pushed him over the hump. I am here to tell you that according to Auntie Marla, John Reagan has a "ghetto" booty. From day 1 we moved up in diaper sizes super fast. We even had to buy the bigger size in pull-ups to cover the rear end. Well, his "cars" were known for riding up. He would walk around with one butt cheek hanging out, and he would go up to Greg, turn around, and say, "What's wrong with these things daddy." John Reagan's translation: get them out of my booty. One day he was all mad about his "cars" not working right, so I finally told him that if he didn't want them doing that he would have to wear big boy underwear because the cars didn't fit anymore. OMG! If I would have known that all it was going to take to rid us of the cars was that statement, I would have said it a LONG time ago. We are on a month now of big boy underwear, and he has only asked for cars twice. I explain to him that they don't fit and that they ride up. That's the end of it. "What? Really? That's it?" is what goes through my mind every time.

So here is John Reagan, Conqueror of the Potty!

I can say that potty training was not much of a headache for us. We just took our usual "whatever" attitude and let it happen at John Reagan's pace. I envy you mother's who can do the potty training boot camp or just work and work with your children and have them potty trained in a week or so. I absolutely would not have any hair left if I had to do that. I don't have the patience or the ability to not get extremely frustrated and fight with my child over the situation to take that approach. We will see what I decide to do with Evie.

Just a head's up, I don't know how much blogging I will get to right now with the packing, but hopefully I will still be able to keep you somewhat informed.

Our Big Decision

Are you mad at me yet for making you wait this long on our news?

I had no intention of it taking this long to get back to the blog, but it took a little longer than expected to finalize things. Add in the fact that the blog hasn't been on my mind much here lately, and you the reader get a 3 week vacation. That is if you haven't been pulling your hair out because I teased you.

When I started this blog, it was for the purpose of keeping family in Louisiana updated with what was going on here in The Hasley House. I quickly discovered that very few of those family members took the time to sit down and look at the pictures of the kiddos, much less read what was going on. I was surprised by all the friends who were keeping up with us through the blog. The great thing about a blog is you get to let everyone know about the little things that you would never think of telling them otherwise.

Needless to say, I never dreamed the blog would turn into our life line to Tennessee. We are moving! Not only are we moving, but we are moving 9 hours and 600 miles back to Louisiana. This was not on our radar at all. We were and have always been perfectly content here in Murfreesboro and wanted to raise our children here. However, Greg was offered an opportunity he couldn't turn down, and we will be close to all of our family.

This transition is bittersweet for us because we have the greatest friends anyone could ask for here. Murfreesboro has been our home for 6 years and will always hold a place in our hearts. This is where I have to leave the news at this for a while until I can gather my thoughts and hold back the tears a little more. We love all of you here in Murfreesboro and are going to miss you deeply. Just a note: we have already started discussing our first visit.

As is typical of me, I am leaving you with a few pictures.

Louisiana is where he first layed eyes on her. He had to ride. He loved her!

One evening in July we had some of the prettiest skies. I thought I would share a couple of the pictures we took. Several days in a row the sky looked like this. You could turn from North to South, East to West and get a different view and different selection of colors. We enjoyed sitting outside and taking it all in.

I will do better in the writing department next time.
We love you all,

Brandi