What do PJ's and the Washing Machine have in common?

I know you are thinking, "Okay Brandi, the answer to your question is quite obvious." Maybe in the real world it is an obvious answer, but here at the Hasley House it is not what you are thinking. My answer is...John Reagan of course. He has been the sweetest little thing here lately. Now in reality, we have had a few bad moments, but in the larger picture, he has been extra sweet and loving for the past 2 weeks.

To jump right into my story, John Reagan and Evie got somewhat matching PJ's for Christmas. They obviously aren't exactly matching because with a boy and girl that is just impossible, and these aren't the same pajamas they wore Christmas Eve either. These were pj's from Pawcaw and Nana...the kinds with the footies. Now I love footie pajamas for Evie because she needs them at this age, but I have never bought any for John Reagan after he turned a year old. And sorry Nana to have to admit this, but when I first opened them for John Reagan I was less than excited. I just knew there was no way I was going to get that child to wear his. But I failed to recognize at the time my secret weapon. Oh yes, I had a secret weapon. These pajamas came from PAWCAW AND NANA! All I had to do the first time was ask John Reagan if he wanted to wear his pj's from Pawcaw and Nana, and you can guess the response. So we dressed John Reagan and Evie in the matching pajamas, and they were the most adorable things. I have come to love the pajamas and love to dress them in the pj's at the same time. It's just too cute. The second time around of getting John Reagan in his wasn't as easy though. I told him we had to take a picture of him and Evie "in their matching pjs." That worked until Evie fell asleep before we got the picture, then John Reagan wanted his off. We managed to keep him in them until he fell asleep. And we took the pictures when they woke up. The third time around with the pajamas...John Reagan put them right on and told me the next morning while rubbing his pjs, "Momma, I like my pjs."

Aren't they just too sweet. Because Greg was not here I just laid Evie in the bed with John Reagan. I didn't want to fight with getting them both on the couch and Evie sitting up long enough for me to get the picture.

Now you can see what I mean about my buddy being such a sweetie. What a great big brother he is! He has also been my BIG time helper when it comes to laundry here lately. Hence the pajama and washing machine question.
He loves to help me put clothes in the dryer and help put the clothes in the washer too. There are several laundry pictures here, but I didn't want you to miss the progression.

He just kept getting farther and farther into the washing machine. Because we didn't buy the pedestals when we bought the washer and dryer, they fit his level perfectly. The first time he more or less bailed into the washing machine, all I could think was "I need my camera." So the next time he came to help me, I was sure to bring my camera. He gets so excited now when I tell him we have clothes to put in the dryer. Man I love this age.

Now that I have doted on how sweet and great John Reagan is, I have to give Evie some loves too. We have loved every stage that John Reagan goes through and always think we aren't ready for him to grow out of that stage until he hits the next one, and it has all the perks of before plus some. We are at that point with Evie. She has hit such a great age. She is so lovable and fun. She does great in her bouncy...half sitting half standing taking in all that is going on and talking up a storm.

She loves playing with the toys, and they are great chew toys. She is a good multitasker already. She knows how to play with her toys, watch cartoons, and smile all at the same time. How do you like those skills?

We can't believe she is already 6 months; yet, we can hardly remember life without her.

And no, her hair is not red. It's just the flash. In person IT IS brown.

We had an exciting week last week. Pawpaw Donnie and Mawmaw Betty came up and visited. They stayed with daddy's sister, my Aunt Mary and Uncle Gordon, who live in Bellevue. We went up Tuesday after Pawpaw and Mawmaw got here and spent the day. Everyone had a great time passing Evie around and loving on John Reagan.

Mawmaw and Pawpaw with Evie. Like John Reagan at Evie's age, Evie loved staring at Pawpaw's cowboy hat. For those of you who know John Reagan and his fetish with all things horses, bull riding, and cowboys, you now know where it came from.

Uncle Gordon put in the movie "Cars" or "Cool McQueen" as John Reagan calls it, and the men (and mommy) had a great time watching the movie. Here Pawpaw and John Reagan are engrossed in what is going on.

Aunt Mary and Uncle Gordon have a maltese named Louka. Seeing as how Evie has Duchess to stare at and love on, she understands doggies. Here she is giving Louka some "human puppy" sugars. That is how Uncle Gordon explains babies to Louka. Aunt Mary and Grandma Annie Rai are helping Evie and Louka socialize.

If you haven't put two and two together (which I am sure you have), Grandma is daddy and Aunt Mary's mother, my grandmother, Evie and John Reagan's great-grandmother. I am so good at stating the obvious, aren't I? I think it is absolutely wonderful that John Reagan and Evie still have 2 great-grandparents to love on them, and I try to never miss the opportunity to take pictures of my babies with my grandmothers, especially the kind like this one.

On Wednesday, Pawpaw, Mawmaw, Uncle Gordon, Aunt Mary, and Louka came to visit us. We made brownie bites to celebrate and for Kimberly's birthday. Shame, shame! Kimberly missed her brownies. Sorry girl! I will make you a special batch next time we get together. Anyway, John Reagan loves anything junk food, including batter. He has already learned all about scraping the bowl, and this was the only way we could convince him to come inside and let everyone warm up.

When we have family up for company, John Reagan thinks he is supposed to play outside with them. I really shouldn't generalize with the family word. When we have Pawcaw and Nana up, John Reagan does a lot of playing outside, so he thought since Uncle Gordon and Pawpaw Donnie were here, that meant let's go outside. Who cares that it was 20 degrees...not really that cold, but I am pretty sure it was one of those mid to high 20s days. John Reagan already knows who plays outside with him. An update on daddy for those of you who might not have heard...He went to the doctor 2 weeks ago for his 4 week check-up, and the doctor said he looked great. The doc also said he would release daddy in 2 weeks to go to work...which is this week. However, Daddy decided to stay off until February 1st. Thanks for all your prayers. He is doing remarkably well, and it is very clear that God had a hand in Daddy's recovery.

Just a side note, while I was typing this blog I let John Reagan play with some markers. Needless to say, Evie has a few marker spots on the face. How sweet of John Reagan!

When I decide to get off my rear and scan the picture, I will share our family picture from Evie's baby dedication, almost 3 months ago. Yes I am being slow about it.

Hope you all are well, especially you Jon and Kelsey. I am going to send you an email one day soon. Love you guys.

Brandi

Recovering from the "Jolli-Days"

We are back. Hasley Hogwash is not doomed to enter into forever oblivion. I hope you are as excited about that as I am. Our hiatus is over...at least I hope so. We experienced the never ending holiday trip this year. For starters, we weren't our typical excited selves about the holidays and for the first time ever were ready for them to be over with. Because of all the craziness leading up to the holidays, we were not in full spirit. On top of that, Greg got the stomach virus Christmas Eve day. He then passed it on to Evie 2 days later, then John Reagan 2 days after that, then me 2 days after that. Get the picture yet. Now let's add a cherry on top of this wild cream sandwich...I started itching like crazy the day we arrived in LA. By Christmas Eve I had a full blown rash from the face to the legs. I will go ahead and mention the fact that I kept the rash the whole 2 weeks we were there and finally went to the dermatologist on Wednesday. A nice little shot and some cream later, I think I have recouped. Greg also gave my mom, his mom, and his dad the virus. What fun! Now I am going to completely and totally blow your world away. We had to rent a small U-Haul trailer to make it home with all of John Reagan and Evie's loot. Crazy! Crazy! Crazy! As you have figured out now, we did make it home and did get all the Christmas decorations down and gifts put up. I can't believe we can actually see the floor. The bad news is we ran through the whirlwind of the holidays and didn't spend the time needed to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. So we have to start right now on revamping our holiday traditions. We don't want next January to be like this January..."Mommy, where's the Christmas tree. Santa Claus coming?" We would prefer something along the lines of, "Mommy, we celebrated Jesus' birthday!" Any ideas while they are still fresh in your mind?

Our Christmas events started earlier than usual this year. We had Christmas lunch with family on the 21st instead of the 24th. When I say family, I mean my mom's mom, my aunt, and all my cousins. We are always minus an aunt and usually 3 sets of cousins, but one set made it in from North Carolina this year.

I had John Reagan's portable DVD player out to keep him entertained, and as you can see, it kept quite a few of the kiddos entertained. On that note, Greg and I were temporarily without children this day. Everyone held Evie and took care of her while we visited, and John Reagan did just what you see above along with play a little bit.

Here are all the great-grands (minus 2 in VA). You can barely see Gracee in the left, back corner.

For those of you who have never seen my sister and might wonder what she looks like when you hear about her children, here is a picture for you. This is Brad, Marla, Breyden, and Kenden.

We did get the opportunity to go down and visit Daddy a couple of times while we were home.

Evie is all bundled up and ready to go see Pawpaw Donnie in her adorable vest from Auntie Marla.

This is Pawpaw Donnie and Breyden. John Reagan was supposed to be in this picture, but you can see below what he was doing instead.

John Reagan is a big fan of horses (Why? We don't have a clue). Pawpaw Donnie has 2 horses, so we got to go pet the horses and feed them apples. It was great fun!

Back at Fifi's house...mom has the neatest pantry. The doors have shelves on them, then there are 2 double-sided swiveling shelves (the best way I know to explain) that open up to more shelves in the back. Very hard to explain, but great fun for grandkids.

Breyden loved to play in the pantry and so does John Reagan. Here he is taking a rest and drinking his chocolate milk. It is a great place to play peek-a-boo.

We let John Reagan and Evie open their stockings before we went to LA. I didn't figure Evie would pay any attention to what was going on, but she went crazy flailing her arms all over the place.

Needless to say, she is a "girly" girl because she loves her little bear and her baby doll she got for Christmas.

She was also teething over the holidays. Her first tooth broke through on the way down there and her second right after we got home.

Here she is working those gums over with her 2 fingers. I thought this was the cutest thing.

Remember the "What is Evie's is John Reagan's post?" Well here is a follow up to that post.

Mom has a saucer at her house for the babies. It was Breyden's, then John Reagan's, and now Kenden and Evie share. As you can see, John Reagan took his share of turns in it. I don't know about you, but I think he might be getting a little big for it.

Because Christmas lunch with extended family was moved up a few days, we were able to spend a little more time at Pawcaw and Nana's on Christmas Eve. John Reagan and Daddy like to fish, and when Pawcaw is around he goes too. In other words, fishing is Pawcaw, Daddy, and John Reagan's thing. John Reagan has a "fish pole" he gets out and plays with in the house. Well, he found Pawcaw's stash while we were there. Not only did he find Pawcaw's fish poles, but he found a fish.

This is John Reagan's BIG catch for the day. This fish came on a flower arrangement for Greg's grandpa when he passed away. He was a fisherman, and now John Reagan is helping carry on that tradition.

Greg with the stomach bug.

Evie's blanket was on hand when Daddy got the chills. I thought this would be a good bribery picture.

Christmas with Pawpaw and Fifi...I could only put a few pictures on here, so I chose the horse trailer and truck. Last year Breyden got a blue horse trailer and truck and that was all John Reagan played with.

So John Reagan got his very own this year. He was quick to tell Breyden "mine."

Marla and I started a new tradition this year. We decided to buy christmas pajamas for each other's children to wear for Christmas morning. John Reagan and Evie would give Breyden and Kenden pajamas and vise versa.

This was our best attempt at wrangling them for their pj picture.

Evie loving on her cabbage patch doll from Pawpaw and Fifi. I'm telling you she loves giving her babies lovin's.

Playing on Christmas Day!

John Reagan got a basketball goal from Santa.

Playing with Christmas at Pawcaw and Nana's

Now here's the BIG toy! Pawcaw couldn't resist buying John Reagan his first 4-wheeler as John Reagan refers to it.

Uncle Brad and Auntie Marla's

Uncle Brad and Auntie Marla just built a new house and moved in while we were there. We went to visit and celebrate Kenden's 1st birthday. Breyden's christmas last year was an alligator. He likes to ride John Reagan around on it, and anyone who will ride with him for that matter.

He even lets John Reagan drive. Aren't they too cute? Of course Breyden had to help John Reagan with his steering on occasion.

Kenden turned 1 on Dec. 28th

I can't believe how fast a year goes by now. Here is cutie pie Kenden eating up his birthday cake.

Remember John Reagan and the big drawing paper at Fifi's?

Well he likes to hide under it as much as he likes to color on it.

Home AT LAST!!

Daddy unloaded the trailer on Sunday after we made it home. This would be Sunday, the 4th. John Reagan naturally wanted to take a spin in the 4-wheeler. He also wanted Duchess to ride with him. This is classic. Cracks me up every time.

Hope I haven't pushed you into overload. One day I will write a short blog. Hey, I did good when pairing down the number of pictures I put on here. There were lots more I wanted to add. Maybe Greg will assume the "short blogger" responsibility...lol!

Brandi

Snow Days!

Oh yes! My second installment is here tonight. If I don't get this in tonight, I may never get it in. I should have explained the 2 posts in one day in this post because it is the one you will be reading first. But I told you (in the earlier one of course) I am working on low brain steam here. I didn't think that far in advance.

Oh yes! I did FINALLY get family pictures on here too. Yea! Aren't you proud? I am sure you thought they would never get here, but they HAVE arrived. Halelujah!

And oh yes! I have started completely off track. You know that is so unusual for me. So back to it...or I should say...Let's get to it!

We had our first big snow in Tennessee on Thursday. Marla, too bad you don't live up here. You could have had some snow on your anniversary instead of 2 boys and a husband sick. We were all so excited. We ventured out around 3:30-4:00 in the pouring rain to run some errands. Yes, we are crazy! I'm sure you already knew that though. After about 20 minutes, the rain started to turn into sleet. It was only about 34 degrees at the time, so we weren't expecting the snow. To our surprise, the temperature dropped more than 2 degrees in about an hours time. I guess it was around 6:00-6:30 or so, Greg went into the grocery store. It was only snowing a little, but by the time he came out everything was covered in a blanket of snow. John Reagan and I were about to bust out of the vehicle and start playing right there in the Publix parking lot. We refrained ourselves though. Since we aren't morning people in this house, we went ahead and got the camera out Thursday night.

John Reagan was having so much fun just standing in the snow. He didn't even have to play in it to get excited. Nana, where are those gloves you said you bought? We needed them this night.

Man, I could not believe how fast it accumulated.

The snowflakes were so big!

We live on a circle street, and this is the center of our circle. It sure made a pretty picture covered in white.



This picture isn't quite as good. I know I am stating the obvious, but I put it on here to show more snowflakes. Can you tell how excited we were?

Max had a blast running around in it. We did have to coax him out there at first. Max can be a baby sometimes about the cold weather. He prefers the garage in the winter. Duchess usually ventures out in the snow and plays around in it, but she decided that it was too cold. She likes to go out in the day time, so she missed out on her blog time.

Some family snow pictures for good measure. Since I have been so behind recently, I thought I might get to put some snowy pictures on our Christmas cards this year, but I liked the ones I had already planned for better.

John Reagan cracks me up!

John Reagan is so excited in the mornings when Evie wakes up. He loves to get in her face and talk to her saying, "Good mornin' sister." It is so cute! He has been on this kick here lately where he has been wanting to hold Evie again. She is as big as his lap now, so we usually just sit her right beside him. That seems to make him happy enough.

John Reagan has already had a sucker! Can you tell by the blue tongue?

I figured I would put the full body shot on here to give you an idea of the ever shrinking lap space. I sure hope John Reagan is always this loving with Evie. He is already a good big brother, but if he keeps this up, he is going to be an excellent big brother, especially for mommy and daddy when the boys start coming around.

Since you have waited so long for the family pictures, I decided to put a couple of extra on here. We have lots of really good ones, but some are not in the right format. Seeing as how I am running on low steam and it is late, I didn't want to tackle that situation. So you only get these 2 extras.

This will probably be my last blog for 2008! We will be leaving Saturday for Christmas in Louisiana, and blogging down there with that internet connection...NO WAY! Unless something EXTREMELY (and I mean extremely) exciting happens between now and Saturday, I will not be posting. But hey, with the way things have been going here lately, I wouldn't put it past us just yet. So, here is my final 2008 greeting to you (unless I see you in person before the new year)...hope your holidays are merry and bright. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I should have put this in the previous blog since you will most likely be reading it last, but hey! What can I say?

Our Trip to Louisiana

In an attempt to not overload your senses, I decided to spread out all that I wanted to add on here into 2 blogs instead of my usual extremely LONG post. This is also for my sanity because I was afraid I would overload my already frail (because of exhaustion) brain and send it into oblivion. It really isn't that bad, but it is. We have not gotten back on our schedule since returning home. We are all very tired. I never realize that we do have a decent schedule until we are away from home and out of it.

Anyway, for those of you who didn't know (I don't know who that would be) we were recently in LA for a week. My dad had bypass surgery on the 5th. He ended up having 5 bypasses...I don't have a clue what that is called. He is doing extremely well, and thank you for all your prayers.

We did have a fun trip despite the reason we were there. John Reagan and Evie got to spend a good bit of time with Breyden and Kenden (their cousins). We had all 4 of them lined up to get a picture together, but Greg wouldn't get up from where he was sitting to get a descent picture. Therefore, we have them spread out into 2 pictures instead of one.

This is Breyden and Evie before we got all of them down there.

John Reagan and Breyden

Our first attempt was all of them lined up, but we later put John Reagan on Breyden's lap. They both thought that was great! I think Breyden is being silly here, but you never know with him. He could have been giving Uncle Greg a hard time.

Kenden and Evie
Kenden is 11 months old, and he is one big boy. He has actually lost weight and only weighs 25 pounds now instead of the 30 he was weighing.

I thought they were too cute, so I put another one of them. Plus, you have to be super fast to get Evie while she is looking right at you. As you can see, we didn't succeed at that feat.

Isn't Kenden's adorable in his hat? This was once John Reagan's hat, and we always loved it...still do!

When we were at the hospital ALL day and night Friday, mom was brave and kept all three boys. We took Evie so she wouldn't be too overwhelmed, and Evie was a good distraction for everyone. Anyway, mom sure lucked up because all 3 boys fell asleep at the same time and slept for 1 1/2-2 hours. This was amazing considering Breyden and John Reagan don't really take naps anymore. God was smiling down on here that day.

Saturday, mom made a red velvet cake for a bake sale. John Reagan got the bowl.

As you can see, he got it all over his cheek. Surprisingly his shirt is not covered. I am sure this is thanks to Fifi for helping him.

So you can get the full effect of the bowl!



I have gotten good at capturing this image here lately. Evie was the one who was supposed to be taking the nap, not daddy.
The funny part about this picture is...the whole time Greg was sleeping, John Reagan was at his feet eating out of the cake bowl. Greg never even knew it. He had to look at the pictures on the camera after it was all said and done because he didn't believe me when I told him.

While we were so close to Natchitoches, we hopped on over (on the interstate) to check out the Christmas lights. Every year we say we are going to go while we are home for Christmas but never do. Because we were in Alexandria visiting Daddy, we were closer than usual. We decided to take John Reagan and Evie to check it out.
The night setting on our camera has a delay, so we were having trouble getting pictures that weren't blurry. That's why there are so few here.

For those of you who don't live in Louisiana, the setting for the lights is the bank of the Cane River. It is very pretty.


Here's you a blurry on for good measure.

Back at Fifi's house...you know, Fifi's house is a lot of fun for little boys. If you know John Reagan well, you know he likes to color...with markers, crayons, pens, whatever he can get his hands on. You also know that any surface is fair game to him. I can honestly say that I have scrubbed EVERY wall in this house. Fifi is obviously a little smarter than mommy. She keeps huge sheets of paper around (where she gets them from, I don't know).

John Reagan had lots of fun coloring. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Greg down there with him. We have 2 portrait souvenirs of Daddy's drawing time with John Reagan...one of Evie and one of John Reagan. They are adorable. I might have to put them on here for you to see because they make me laugh just thinking about them.

So this was our Louisiana trip in a nutshell (minus our time at the hospital). I took my camera for the sole purpose of getting pictures of Daddy and Evie because this was the first time he saw her. Needless to say, I didn't get any. Shame on me! But they will be coming! They will be coming soon because we are leaving Saturday to head back down there. Yippee! John Reagan isn't going to remember life before all this time with grandparents. We have seen all of them on and off at different times since the first of November. That's going to be something fun to look forward to in the new year...getting John Reagan back to normalcy. I am excited. Can't you tell?