Break Out Your Galoshes!

It's a snowin' 'round here!
I don't know why I made that sentence sound hick, but I did, and it was fun.

Guess what we got to do tonight?
And by "we" I mean Carl and Hayden.

"We" shoveled snow from the driveway and had fun doing it.

Such troopers.
Check out the stink eye Hayden is giving me in this picture. She really was having fun...I swear.

She LOVES the snow!

When we came back in to warm up and get ready for bed, something was a little strange. Can you tell?

Maybe this is a better picture. No? You don't see it?

It must just be me then. :)

Now Put Your Hands Up

We had our first cup of hot chocolate of the season. On Sunday night it started snowing. We went for a little drive around our neighborhood to see who has their Christmas stuff out already and remind Hayden that even though Christmas is grand, we shouldn't forget Thanksgiving. :) I do love seeing Christmas lights, but rest assured (and according to Carl), ours will not be going up until after Thanksgiving. And I totally agree with him. Even though I think it would be nice to get them up while the weather is cooperating and not turn them ON until after Thanksgiving. But hopefully the weather will be nice then, too. Moving on...so we went for a drive while it was snowing, so when we got home we heated ourselves up some hot chocolate and indulged.

Hayden really likes to play hide and seek. However, she still hasn't grasped the concept. When I count and look for her, she ALWAYS gives herself away, usually by yelling or laughing. Sometimes she just doesn't hide her whole body, like in this case:

See what is sticking out from under the door? That would be her foot. Nice try, Hayden but you aren't fooling anyone!

This next picture makes me laugh. Hayden likes to run around without much clothing on sometimes. We try to teach her to be modest, but it's in one ear and out the other, apparently.

In this instance, we made an exception because of her tights. How could we cover up the cute little bear on her bottom?

I know how. Put on some music and Hayden is quick to find any kind of dress so she can DANCE! She HAS to be wearing a dress or skirt to dance. She will have it no other way. In this video, it's her denim skirt and her McCain family reunion t-shirt. She's got style!

I realize the Beyonce song "Single Ladies" is a bit overused, but we couldn't resist. We like to be cliche:)

Untitled from Devin McCain on Vimeo.

Is It Too Early to be Excited for Spring?

Today we planted tulips and hyacinths. I'm so excited that we got it done. I was really beginning to think we wouldn't. Now I have to wait about 6 months or so to fully appreciate the work. It's probably going to be a looooong winter, but at least there will be a prize at the end!
Hopefully our garden will look something like this (with additional pink tulips and pink hyacinths):

Aren't they so pretty!?

We planted a total of 60 tulips and 16 hyacinths. I really hope all of them bloom, but what are the chances of every single one blooming? I really don't know because I have never planted that many before. It will be fun to see how it goes.
Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for some snow. You know, the good powdery kind. But when I'm over the snow, this will be a nice surprise. Can't wait :)

She's Done It Again!

Robyn took some pretty sweet and awesome pictures of Hayden last week. We have discovered that Hayden is no model child, meaning she can't sit still long enough to count to 5 and pose or even smile during photo shoots, much less get a good shot.(Like most kids, right? right???) However, Robyn has somehow managed to capture some of her greatest smiles! That's saying something ;)
These are just a few of the many, many great shots she got.

Check Robyn out at her blog Catching Moments .

Thanks so much, Robyn. I love them!

Our Halloween Story

I was excited about Halloween this year because we were actually going to get to go door to door in our neighborhood instead of just doing a Trunk or Treat. Hayden is at the age now where she can have fun and understands how it works. But for a while there, I didn't think trick or treating was going to happen for us for a couple of reasons:

1. Remember the last post about BYU's Halloween fun? That night ended with us putting Hayden down and her waking up about 1/2 an hour later vomiting all over her room. That is seriously my worst nightmare. Anyway, our little Hayden was sick. I don't even think it was an "I ate too much candy" kind of sick either, because she didn't eat that much. I'm not sure what it was that made her sick but I thought our weekend was over. Luckily, she was better the next day. Trick or treating was still on for Saturday.


2. Saturday came along and the forecast called for some rain showers. No big deal right? However the forecast changed to thunderstorms. And a doozy of one at that. But we didn't know about it until we walked outside to start trick or treating with Robyn and Lincoln.

Carl stayed home to pass out the candy to trick or treaters. We even went out early to try and beat the "rain showers", still unaware that a storm was fast approaching. We went to the first couple of houses before we looked to the south and saw this:


then the next house was this:

then this with some lightening:


then this with some lightening and thunder:
until we finally decided we needed to make a run for it. And I'm so glad we did, because then this happened:

hail storm from Devin McCain on Vimeo.

It was crazy!! I'm usually totally on top of the weather situations going on but this time I was completely blind sided.

This is hail, not snow, even though we had snow here earlier this week.

The rainbow after the storm.

Our trick or treating was put on hold for about an hour. But the rain finally led up and we made a second attempt at getting delicious candy. It was great and so much fun to see Hayden having fun.
Walking along on our second attempt. I love her outfit with her big coat...it was cold!

Trick or treating with Lincoln.

Her own stash
Our pumpkins. We even had dry ice going on in Carl's pumpkin but it's hard to see in the pictures.


Happy Halloween! We hope everyone else was able to get out and have some fun!

Trick or Treat!

We went to BYU's Halloween get together tonight. Hayden was cute as ever!
Afterward we carved Hayden's pumpkin to get the festivities going.

Halloween 2010 from Devin McCain on Vimeo.

Happy Halloween!

Another Year, Another Gray Hair...

This is my 200th post and it was my birthday yesterday.
Win-Win!
I won't lie, I usually milk my birthday month for all it's worth by exclaiming how it's my birthday allllll month long and what not, but this year I kind of felt different. I didn't want to accept that I'm getting older. But I am and that's okay. It's just a little harder than I thought it would be. Wah wah wah.

But here's where it gets good and I stop whining.
Look:

How can anybody be bummed about a birthday when they can have endless amounts of donuts at their reach!! That's what happens when you have the greatest husband and the amazing Robyn on your side. They didn't plan this, but they both knew how much I love donuts that they both got me some for my big day. They are so thoughtful. Robyn's were even homemade and incredible!
For real.

Speaking of Robyn, she was even kind enough to make homemade stir fry for dinner! YUMMY! She said she felt bad because I had to sit out in the FREEZING cold on my birthday (to watch the girls cheer at a football game) but I think she just wanted to win the best neighbor and friend of the year award. Did I mention she and her hubby also watched Hayden for those 3 hours I was gone in the freezing cold? Yea, she totally wins for being awesome. Thanks, Robyn!

One of the highlights of my day was when I had walked in from said football game and the house had been decorated in streamers(which Robyn had also helped with. Told you, she's amazing); The look on Carl's and Hayden's faces while yelling "happy birthday!" when I walked in was sooooo priceless. They were so genuinely excited to see me that it made me feel so loved and so blessed to have them in my life. I wish I had a picture of them at that moment. It was perfect.

This picture is solely documentation that Carl does, in fact, know how to wrap presents. He just hates doing it. He usually wraps them in towels or hides them under a blanket and has me reach my hand under and pick something out. Which is fun and saves on wrapping paper. But this year I requested he actually wrap them up. So he did. What a good man :)

My friend Alice the fairy even stopped by to help me open my presents. She's great.
I guess it's not so bad to get older when you are surrounded by nothing but cuteness.

I am so grateful for my family and friends. I feel blessed on a daily basis for the amazing people in my life. I'm thankful for a husband who had been sick for the 3 days before my birthday but on my birthday he made sure that I was comfortable and relaxed. That's love! I hope I can be as good a friend and spouse and mother and person as those people in my life.
:)