Hynes Happenings

Here are some happenings at the Hynes' house! I had some contractions this morning and have been ordered to "take it easy", so there may be many blog posts coming seeing as how I don't have much else I can do while in my back! This week was St Patrick's Day, kindergarten roundup, crocheting at Harmoni's house, and other fun stuff. Here goes!

Elliott got his black stripe belt! It's the highest rank he can get until he's six, so he is excited to be at the top!



Kindergarten roundup is for the kids going into kindergarten next year. Elliott got to see the school, meet the staff and explore the special classes. Here he is underwhelmed in library time.


He is excited to be there, don't let that last picture fool you!


St Patty's day! The leprechauns didn't let us down this year, hiding their gold in the bathroom drawer, under their scriptures, and in their coat pockets.


Harmoni taught the kids to crochet and the are obsessed. All they want to do is go to Harmoni's house and knit! It is crazy they are old enough to do this.





Here is Elliott in his paper-boy cap; just like his daddy. He's a little ham and I love him!


Fun times, and certainly more to come!

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Fun times in the Freezing Spring

I woke up this morning with my puffy feet, swollen hands and giant face, and I looked out the window to see a hard frost....sigh. C'mon Spring!! But, when I looked harder, I saw my daffodils budding, onions poking up in my garden, and I even heard birds chirping!! Spring is coming, she is just taking her time. About the swollen-ness, some mornings I just wake up a water balloon. It's weird, there is now rhyme or reason to it, it just happens sometimes. Sweet. Just another perk of being 8 months pregnant! Here are some of the exciting happenings of the last little while at our house....

-Elliott wanted to buy another Zhu Zhu pet, so he did some chores. He earns 25 cents a chore, and in 2 days, he earned 18 quarters! He is a determined kid.

-Lucy learned to criss-cross jump rope yesterday! She has been trying for over a year and yesterday she finally got it! Now she is a criss-cross pro and it's all she does all day long.

-Mike found a newsboy cap that fits his head and he loves it. I found one at Target for the baby, and Elliott got one online from Gap! There will most certainly be pictures to come, we are just waiting on our littlest model to show up to the shoot.

-Elliott, Lucy, Mike, Uncle Jason, and cousin Rowan are going to the Monster Truck Rally today. I will not be going because as Mike says, "they don't make ear plugs for my tummy."

The rest of our happenings can be seen in the following pictures...enjoy!

Lucy went on a special geo-caching date with Dad to the caves in Kuna! Here is a picture of her underground after climbing down a dark ladder into the cave.

Lucy loves her Cousin Joy, and to honor her keen fashion sense, Lucy popped the lenses out of some old 3-D glasses and created her new, favorite fashion accessory. She wanted to wear them to school, but I had to nix that idea.

Another Kuna geo-caching adventure while I was napping one Saturday. Dad took the kids and Cousin Rowan out for some adventures.

Lilly had a Birthday! There was a baby ( of sorts...I think it was a little rubber rat) in the cake, and Uncle Mike found it. We love having the Wilsons and Emily and Jason so close, these Sunday birthday bashes are the best!

Elliottt and I created and laminated a driver's license for him. He isn't happy with the picture I chose....apparently it isn't tough enough for him!

Lucy tested for her Blue Belt! Usually, we just take it easy and let her test in about 3 months, but green belt class was getting huge, so we decided to try for 2 months this time. She was amazing. She practiced after school most days, made it to 3 classes a week every week, and she did it in 2 months! Look at some of the cool stuff she got to do.

Her form. I love this backstance pose because it looks like tai chi to me.

One step sparring. She got to take down an older boy! SWEET!

Breaking a board with her back kick. No explanation needed.
They gave us coupons for Jamba Juice. It is just down the way from the studio, and if you wore your uniform you got a free teeny jamba. Very cool.

And here is the belt.
Congrats Lucy, we are so proud of you!

On a cold, snowy day, we got to watch Elliott's friend, Bo. I decided to take them on a field trip to my favorite store in Boise...Powell's Sweete Shop!! They loved it, and so did I.

Mike loved it too because I brought him home some chocolate covered bacon on a stick....mmmmm.
Those are our happenings, stay tuned for monster truck updates, baby shower reports, and pregnancy pics! Love you .

March is here...March is here!!!!

But first...what happened in February? Let me sum it up for you with a dialogue of pictures!

For Valentine's Day, Mike got Lucy and I a pedicure, her first, my haven't-had-one-in-12-years! So, on President's Day, we were off on our little date. The pedicure was scary for Lucy because it was an unknown, and it was AMAZING for me to have my puffy, pregnant lady feet pampered. Lucy lost her fears as soon as the water bath was turned on and she realized she had a captive audience in the pedicurist...several times she and her husband commented on what a chatter Lucy was. That's one of the things I love about her!

Here is the finished product. Lucy chose a nice purple, and I didn't choose anything; much to the confusion of the pedicurist! I just like them clean and pretty.

Then, as if that wasn't enough, it was time for my semi-annual hair appointment! Hooray! Elliott got his hair all Superman-ed out and we took a little beauty shot. I love the grin on his face in this one.

Oh wait...it gets better! Harmony and Had Abogi offered to watch ALL the grandkids over night so the parents could play! So, after dropping the kids off Friday night, Mike and I .....went home and went to bed. I know, not exciting, but VERY appreciated. The best part of the whole thing was the time the kids got to spend together and with their grandparents. I received text photos from the people in the action. Here is what they did:

Rowan had a Jedi tournament on Saturday, so he grabbed Elliott and they fought some super- villains! Elliott said he beat Darth Vadar twice! This must be him training with Yoda.

That left Lucy and Merric to play with Harmony all day Saturday. She loved it.

This is the craziness that must have taken place all night Friday...you guys are amazing Harmony and Had Abogi!

That is the rest of our February. What a wonderful time! We are SOOOO looking forward to spring and warmth and gardens and sunshine and water-games and blossoms and flowers and BABY!! April can't come fast enough, but if all the weeks are as fun as this one was, we will enjoy the wait.

Valentines and Snow storms

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!! I didn't decorate cookies or anything grand this year (Lucy won't drink the milk if it's red), but it was still a fun day of School Parties and too much candy.

This is Elliott's school party. Here is is by the bag he decorated.

I came in for their celebration, and I was a little early so I got to see "story time". I thought it was cute to see all the kids lying around listening to Mrs. Lindemood.

Valentine opening time!

After Elliott's party, we rushed off to Lucy's school to see her for her party. Yummy, ice-cream sundaes!

Elliott was just so cute, they offered him one too.

After V-Day, Mother Nature decided to give us some love and we had a beautiful 60 degree day! We were watching Elliott's friend, Bo, and we played at the park. Bo thinks you have to take your shirt off to exercise, and since they were exercising at the park, the shirts just had to go. Look at those muscles....proof that they were working out pretty hard.

And after our lovely day, we had this:
There was so much hail-mini-snow-balls that the kids put on their snow gear and played in the snow on the trampoline! This all came down in about 5 minutes. WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?

Elliott has discovered the beauty of doing extra chores for quarters around the house. He has saved his money for a t-ball set and a toy golf set. Here he is; the proud owner of a t-ball set he saved for all by himself!
Hope you enjoyed the updates...I kinda think my kids are pretty cute, so I assume you do too! More to come soon!

And Now...My Birthday!

But before we get to the festivities....I have a little catching up to do. We have posted pictures of Me playing Super Mario Bros. Wii with the kids. We have posted pictures of Gramma Karen and Harmony doing the same thing. But, we have yet to post a picture of Dad playing....until now!

Such concentration.

Lucy decided to go digging through my closet and came up with a new dress-up option...ta-dah! Go Taylor Jr. High! She couldn't believe we cheered without pom-poms, so she added a bit to the costume. Morgan, no matter how old I get, the Taylor cheer uniform (and sweats) will never die. Lucy is here to carry on my legacy! Hee Hee.

And now the birthday! Because I was craving red velvet cake, I made my own cake this year and invited family over for cake. Worried that there wouldn't be enough cake for me to have an adequately sized slice, I also made chocolate cupcakes so the kids could decorate and eat those. Brilliant, if I do say so myself.

With the hungry children taken care of, it was onto the good stuff! My birthday wish has to wait until the end of April to be realized, but I'm confident it will come true!

That was the day before my birthday. My birthday morning, I woke up to Lucy and Elliott's decorations in our entry-way. Here is Elliott's birthday message to me:

It is our family and balloons. I love it...it is still up.

Here is Lucy's birthday decor:

She was upset that she didn't get to buy me a present this year, but was very happy to make my day better with her art work. Personally, I prefer the art work to gifts because it makes me smile every time I walk by the front door. Thanks Lucy and Elliott, you are very sweet and I love you!

The kids have been begging and begging to have a lemonade stand lately. I keep telling them it's the wrong season, no on drives down our street, they have to prepare,...blah, blah, blah. Finally, I gave in...they got to have an Orange stand. Lucy, Elliott and his friend Bo set it up in our front yard. I have worried that they would be disappointed with no customers, so I have been hesitant. Little did I know what go-getters they were, and how little it takes to make them happy. They set it all up themselves. They have a garbage for orange peels, a sack of old grocery bags in case the customers need to carry some oranges home, and a bag for money. They started out slow, but then realized it was much more effective to take their idea on the road. They hopped on their bikes and peddled their goods to generous neighbors and ended up making a dollar each...$3 on their first stand; not bad! They were very excited and encouraged to do another one soon. Elliott is saving for a laptop...I see a lot of orange stands in our future.

The sales team.
Elliott holding down the fort while Lucy and Bo arrange some sales.
The whole thing lasted about 40 minutes, but they had so much fun. It feels good to be able to let go and just let them be kids sometimes. I am working on doing that more often. They love it and it gives me great blogging stories!

And lastly....we finally got the baby a crib! My nesting has made me very anxious about not being prepared for this little guy! I know we still have 3 months to go, but if I don't do something to prepare for him every day, I get very anxious. We used some of my parent's birthday money to buy the little guys a crib! Elliott was right there helping Dad the whole time...he even had his tools ready.

I got to help too, so I hope the thing is safe and stays together well! You never know how it will turn out when I'm the one wielding the power tools!

We are happy, healthy and ready for February...bring it on!