Lots of pictures

This is our trip to the UP and other pictures from that vacation. This picture proves we actually went there.
This is a state park mom took us to, isn't it gorgeous?

Aw, cute!

This was part of the picture rock lake cruise we took. It's a profile of an indian chief. The trees are his hair.

These next 2 are just cool and I think Heather will enjoy them the most.

LOWER PENNISULA

This is the front of the John Johnson farm house in Hyrum, OH-just outside of Kirtland.

Here we are in the doors of the Kirtland temple.

Doesn't he look excited? We had to prove he had been there.

This was part of the Henry Ford Museum's exhibit of Cars and Guitars of famous rockers. Don't they look real?

Dad really did fall asleep in the museum while Eric and I made our own cars to race from Kinex-is that how you spell that? It's how it sounds.

And this car is just in the museum, but it broke the sound barrier at the salt flats in Utah.

Merrit at the Hands on Museum

Eric pretending to be a crazed ambulance driver.

And Jaxson with nasty chocolate teeth.

I have many more pictures, if you want to see more of the UP, or of the cars and guitars at the Henry Ford, or of the kids at the museum...but there were just too many to post at once. Also, we have the date of our ultrasound set-next Thursday the 30th at 2:30. We went in yesterday and heard the baby's heart again and I was relieved that it's still alive. But we had an awesome time in Michigan so thanks to all of you who hung out with us and thanks Mom and Dad for letting us stay in your house and eat your food and go up north with you. And it's good to hear that things are going well for Hillary-well, kind of, I guess :) But we are happy to know that Jana and Jason made it safe and finally have the internet in their house. We'll update next week and let you guys know what they say, and hopefully post ultrasound pictures. YIPEE!

Here are the Pictures from the Musuem... well some of them.

WE MADE IT!

Jason, Addie and I made it to Tennessee yesterday afternoon. After a long road trip, it was nice to get here. Colorado was beautiful and it poured rain all through Oklahoma. If you've been watching the news lately, the eastern part of Oklahoma basically flooded, so we were lucky to get out of there in time! We are also very grateful that his parents were able to come with us. It has made the move so much easier.

Our apartment is much much bigger, has new carpet, and is nice overall. The layout is kind of strange and the kitchen is in need of updating, but we're happy to be here. TN is gorgeous. I forgot how green it is! It's VERY hot, supposedly 12 people have died this month in the Memphis area because of the heat, so we're being careful to stay indoors with the air conditioning. Oh yeah, and it's WONDERFUL to have the internet again!

Hillary, I'm so excited for your family! It will be nice to still be close enough to go home when you want. Jason and I really enjoyed that back in Utah. With his parents in Idaho, it was nice to pick up and go for an extended weekend without a problem. I certainly hope y'all (trying to apply the Southern drawl) will hear about the house soon and that Charlie will have a place to stay after this weekend.

Heather and Kurt, I completely forgot to thank you for your gift for Addie! It was very appreciated. In fact, she's wearing the onesie you bought her today and it is adorable. And thanks for the gift card, as well. I hope you both are doing well as you prepare for Harvey's arrival. Might I suggest the same kind of onesie you bought us--the kind that button up the front. Anything to avoid pulling over the head is a good idea!

Adelyn is doing great! She smiles at us now and it is adorable. Her smiles make all the effort so worth it! She has a very sensitive stomach and I've had to go off all dairy so she doesn't get so many tummy aches. It has helped quite a bit, which has been nice. It's horrible to hear her scream, so the sacrifice is worth it (but still hard!).

We're about to take Jason's parents for a good ole Tennessee BBQ, so I'll write more later. I'll post some pictures when our stuff gets here in the next few days, we packed away our camera cord. Dang. It's great to be connected again!

I'm trying to put pictures on the blog, we'll see if I can do it. Anyway, here are some pictures from the last month.

Charlie starts his new job this week

We are still trying to buy that house in Racine. We haven't heard from the bank yet if they have accepted or rejected our offer. We think we might just go ahead and offer them full price for the house so we can just get the process going. If this falls through, we have looked at a couple of places we could rent until we find a different house to buy. Both Charlie and I don't want to live separately for too long again. This time the commute isn't as nice, and he won't be able to stay with family again. Charlie called the bishop of the Racine ward and asked him if he could find someone in the ward that Charlie could stay with for a week or two, just until we find something more permanent. He hasn't gotten back to us yet. I suppose Charlie could always stay in a rent by the week, cheap motel if he has to. We've even considered having him sleep in his classroom and showering in the locker room, but I highly doubt that could happen. The kids are getting excited to move. They seem excited to see what their new school will be like. I hope they like the new school.

We are going to Wisconsin this week for a little family trip. Charlie's first day is this Thursday and he suggested we all go over and stay with him in a hotel. So we plan on leaving Wednesday afternoon and staying until Saturday morning. He'll have to go back Sunday afternoon, so we hope to have some where for him to go to by then. We're going to bumb around Racine for the couple of days we are there and see what the city has to offer. The kids are excited to stay in the hotel. We made sure it had a pool. They are excited to swim.

The house is just about finished. We are still waiting to see if the lady from church still wants it and what exactly needs to happen for her to buy it. But she seems pretty excited about it, so this house should be sold in not the too distant future. I will be glad to be away from this house. It has really been an interesting experience living here and fixing it up.

Well, I hope all is well with everyone else. I hope Jana and Jason are settling in well, that Kari and Eric got home safe, that Kurt and Heather are getting their house ready for Harvey's arrival, and that Mom and Dad are enjoying having their house back to themselves. Someone needs to write something soon.

We're moving to Racine, Wi

Just wanted to let you know that Charlie was offered a job at a high school in Racine, Wi and he is going to accept it. His first day is Aug. 23, but the family probably won't move until the beginning of Sept. We have the paperwork started to purchase a home only about 1/2 mile from the school Charlie will be teaching at. The purchase agreement should go in today if our mortgage guy gets the pre-approval letter in on time. It's all kind of a whirl wind situation but it looks like it will work out well for our family. The lady from our ward who wants to buy the house we are in will have her grant dispursement on Tuesday next week. That means she can buy the house and move in as soon as we get out. Things are kind of falling into place. I feel really blessed. I'll write more later, I really need to go and do some painting. We are in a mad dash to finish the work we have left on this house. Thanks for all your prayers.

Finally, a post

I went out to lunch with my friend today at BYU and stopped in a computer lab. Yay! Finally, a new post from the Hairs. I'm sorry my husblond is not keeping you as up-to-date as I would like. We'll work on that.

Adelyn is doing great. She is getting bigger, spits up A LOT, and is growing strong neck muscles. She loves to look all around (which makes burping her that much more interesting) and we are eagerly awaiting the time when she'll give us her first intentional smile. She's such a miracle and we love being parents.

Jason is spending a lot of time finalizing the plans for our big move. We have the truck booked, apartment rented, help recruited, and now all we have to do is start packing boxes. You all know how small our apartment is, so we don't anticipate that taking us more than 3 or 4 good days of effort, but it is, by far, the least exciting part of moving. Ick. I'm not looking forward to the actual move, but it will be fun to be in Tennesse starting our new adventure. Hopefully I'll make friends quickly.

Wow, I don't type nearly as fast as I used to. It's amazing how much slower I've become after only a month being away...

I'm enjoying being a mom, for the most part. I love Adelyn, and am reminded daily how much love Heavenly Father has for us through her. I DON'T love, however, the NIGHTS. Every night, around 10, I get this sense of foreboding-- another long night ahead of me. I can't wait until she starts sleeping longer at night, and hopefully that will be sooner rather than later! Another thing which has been hard is staying home. It's hard to go from working and talking to people all day long to...well...watching Law & Order and reading Harry Potter. I like those things, but enjoy human interaction more. It will take some getting used to. I'll have to get up the energy to work on calligraphy and my other hobbies.

That's about it for the Hair family. It's been great reading about how you all are doing. I hope Heather and Kari continue to feel well and that the Hicks find a job soon. And the count down has begun, only 20 more days until we have the internet...wahoo!

It's Crunch Time

So the last school Charlie interviewed at was Belleville and we heard from them yesterday and it was a no. Charlie interviewed at a school here in Flint on Thursday. It's called Beecher High. They called yesterday too and it was a yes. They offered him the job, but we aren't that excited about it. It's in a super rough neighborhood and the principal wasn't very nice to Charlie during the interview. He really felt like she didn't like him. I'm so torn because if he took the job we could stay in the area. But, if he takes the job he could be miserable. I've had people say that he could take the job and stay for a year and try it out. But then next year when he goes to interview again all the schools will see that's he's only ever stayed for a year in both of his previous jobs; talk about being a major risk to hire. But if he doesn't take the job we really have to start looking out of state seriously because most other states start school before Michigan does, usually the middle of Aug. That means we'd have to move quickly. I really though he'd get a job here. We are kind of discouraged. Thanks for all the prayers. Please keep them coming. We really still need them.

I'm happy that Eric and Kari got to hear the heart beat of their baby. I know that was exciting for me too. I don't think osteopathic school will be such a bad alternative for Eric, and it's cool that you guys could still end up here (even if we aren't here). We will definitely keep praying for all to work out with schooling. We're excited to see you. I hope we're still around too.

IT'S ALIVE!

So yesterday was our first visit to the doctor's office and it went great. So far, everything looks fine. They did some blood work, but I'm sure that will come out okay too-hopefully. But the most exciting thing was that we got to hear the baby's heart beat. I was a little nervous because it took the lady what seemed like forever to find it, but after she found it the heart beat was beating strong. It made it all the more real to us that we really are going to be having a baby. And she only found one heart beat...so we're pretty sure that we are only having one. But I guess she could have missed the other, so I guess we won't know for sure until the ultrasound. So I can't have the ultrasoud as early as I thought. I'm kind of bummed. I won't have it until the last week in August or first week in September. So I won't know what the baby is when we come home. And by the way, we fly out for Michigan 2 weeks from yesterday!!!! YIPEE!!! Just wanted to keep you guys updated on that. We really like the nursery colors, Kurt and Heather. And we are praying for Charlie to find a job, Hillary. We hope you guys still live in Michigan in 2 weeks. :) And Eric got his MCAT scores back-they are not as good as he was hoping. So he's decided to only apply to osteopathic schools. I think that's a great choice because we might have spent close to $500 applying for medical schools, whereas now we will only be spending $150 on applications. So the fours options for us now are Missouri, Chicago, Lansing, and Maine. Any of those would be fine for both of us. Thanks for all your prayers and if I could be so bold as to ask you guys to pray now that he is accepted into at least one-that would be most helpful. Thanks! Well we'll see you guys in Michigan shortly...and we love ya!

Adelyn Kay pictures

I finally have a chance to load the pictures I took of Adelyn Kay while we were in Utah. She is a cutie. You will just love the picture of Uncle Jim bonding with her. Here goes (I hope they all fit)! We can't wait to add pictures for Harvey David and Kari and Eric's baby when they both arrive. Our family is really growing!

Work in Progress

Kurt and I started working on the nursery a couple weeks ago. He and my dad got the chair-rail cut and ready to hang this weekend. It still needs to be stained and re-hung, that's why there are all the purple tape pieces sticking to the wall, to mark where the nails should go for studs. We also got this cool rug from Ikea this weekend. We'll be sure to post more pictures as the room gets closer to being done.
The pregnancy is going great. I'm feeling good and all my tests are coming back looking good. I don't know if I posted it but they moved my due date to October 30th. I also started a new job today working as a receptionist at the Veterans' Affairs hospital in Ann Arbor. It is just a temporary contract until the end of September. Hopefully we can use the extra cash to put towards a new car for Kurt so that Harvey can actually ride in the car with his dad. That's about it from our end. We're loving visiting with Joe and Michele's new little one and I'm still plugging away at my thesis. There isn't much left to do but sometimes I feel like it is never going to get done.

Pinckney Update

Well the news finally came today. Unfortunately, it wasn't good news. Pinckney turned Charlie down. It's probably better this way anyway. We were having a hard time figuring out how to suppliment his income because he'd only be working part-time. Besides, neither of us could spell Pinckney correctly most of the time and that would start to get annoying after a while if he actually worked there :)! He had an interview today with Belleville High. We could actually move closer to Kurt and Heather if he worked there. He feels the interview went well, but he's felt that way with all the other ones too and he has yet to get a job offer. Maybe we are suppose to move out of state for a while, who knows. We appreciate all the prayers and thoughts. We know there is a job out there somewhere for him. We haven't lost hope yet.

Back home

We're back home in Michigan! Yea. It is soooo hot in Utah, with no relief in sight in the near future. We had a great visit with everyone though. Besides being able to spend a good deal of time with Jana, Jason, Adelyn, Kari and Eric, we saw all of Dad's brother's and sisters except Judy, and all of my brother's and sisters, except Loren. Erma and I and LaRee were able to find some more family history stories and the Hill's had a nice reunion. My Aunt Inez from Las Vegas was there with three of her seven children. It was so nice to see them all again. I went to a production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat with Kendall's family. It was put on by a community theater group in Kaysville. It was really good. When they sang the song where Joseph gives his family food when they come to Egypt, they brought out signs that said, "potato pearls, jello, red wheat," and they carried it all in #10 cans (like you would dry pack it in). Only in Utah would that be funny, but it was. We also went to a production of Showboat with Kari and Eric in Logan. It was put on by an opera company, so it was very good. One of Jana and Kari's old room mates worked on the costumes for it. We took Kari and Eric out to eat at the same restaurant that we ate at on our honeymoon. We went to Park City hoping it would be cooler in the mountains, but it wasn't much better. Paul came home from his mission while we were there. He's the same old Paul, maybe a little bit more mature. Rodney also got baptized and Paul did it. We saw Angela's kids, they're very cute. She's due next month with the next one (the surprise). She seems to be handling it very well though. Jana arraigned to have Jim taken on a tour of BYU. Hopefully he will think about going away to college. Right now he wants to stay home and work the year before his mission. We think he'd be better off learning how to live on his own first. I'm sure having the girl friend here is a big reason why he doesn't want to go away to school. We'll see how it all works out. Anyway, it's wonderful to be home where it's so cool and nice. See you all soon I hope.

Fair Pictures

This is the first time our kids have rode amusement park rides. Alexis and Merrit both earned enough money to buy bracelets that allowed them unlimited rides. The younger kids only got to ride the Merry-go-round because we couldn't justify paying $74 for them to have bracelets. They had fun anyway. Alexis's goat weighed 66 lbs. and she sold it for $2 per pound. We didn't think that was too shabby. She'll have to save most of that for next year's goat though. Grandpa only gives their first goat free, the next ones they have to buy. They cost about $70 a goat. So if she decides to have one next year, she'll have to save up for it. I'm glad the fair is finally over and we can get back to normal again. I can't complain too loudly though because we had gorgeous weather and the kids actually behaved rather well considering. I hope it goes as well next year.

Now we have about a month to finish the rest of the house we are in. We made a list last night of what we still are going to do. It's kind of long so we will be working our butts off most every day. We will probably need a vacation from our summer vacation by the time we are finished. There is a woman at church who is interested in buying it. She is applying for a grant through the City of Flint in order to be able to afford it. She's suppose to find out if she's approved this coming Thursday or Friday. It would be nice to have it already sold. One less thing to worry about.

No word yet from Pinckney. Charlie tried to call the Asst. Superintendent today but he was busy. He'll try again tomorrow. Charlie has an interview at Belleville High tomorrow morning. We'll see how that pans out. We may have to start looking out of state. Les and Kristi want us to move to Texas with them. I'm not so sure I want to do that though.

Has anyone read the new Harry Potter book yet? We don't have a copy yet, but I'm pretty sure that Harry dies. I was just wondering if anyone could tell me if I'm right. I'll be mad if I am. I don't want Harry (or Ron and Hermione for that matter) to die.

Fair Week

We are half way through fair week and I wish it were finished already. We have some really long days at the fair. Unfortunately, we have until Saturday.

Yesterday was quite a memory making day. We went up the fair at about 6:30 p.m.-ish so the Lexi could help with the nightly chores. Just as we got there we were trying to figure out what needed to be done and where things were and about 5 minutes later Charlie asked me where Jaxson was. I didn't know. That's not uncommon for him to wander around the 4H small animals barn, usually with his cousins, so we weren't too concerned. We just walked around the barn and looked for him. We couldn't find him right away though and so we became concerned. We enlisted Charlie's parents to help us look and we broadened our search. Charlie's mom asked some of the other 4H-ers to help us and I found the patrolling sheriffs. They got on their walkie-talkies and notified the rest of the sheriffs of the missing Jaxson. We looked for probably 15 to 20 minutes and finally I found him at an old historical church building they have right across the way from the 4H small animal barn. He had followed Lexi over there and because she hadn't told us where she was going, I didn't even know where to find her. Needless to say I was so relieved when I saw him. Then we had to try and tell everyone who was searching that he was O.K. I notified the sheriffs, and the 4H-ers started passing the word along, but we couldn't find Charlie. I tried to call his cell but it didn't ring through. Eventually we all found each other and all was well. Thank Goodness and thanks to our Heavenly Father for watching out for Jaxson. What made me a little mad was that Lexi said she knew he was with her all along. So we had a little chat with her about letting someone know where she was going to be from now on.

Lexi did well in her showing. Her goat was grand champion of the light weight class. Hopefully that means she will get a good amount at the auction for him. I'll post pictures when I get them. Our camera died at the fair so we had to borrow Charlie's sister, Jocelyn's camera.

Charlie hasn't heard from Pinckney yet. We expect to hear by the end of the week. We'll let everyone know as soon as we hear.

A New West

Joe and Michele had their baby this morning, Simon Joseph West. I think the birth time was shortly after 4 a.m. and he weighs 8 lb 11 oz. Her water broke at 1:30 and they had planned on staying home for the first stages of labor, so when her contractions started coming really close together and she started feeling the urge to push only an hour or so into labor they high-tailed it to the hospital. She was already crowning when they did the first examination! They almost had that kid in the car. Kurt took the morning off and we went to meet him. Cute as a button.

Adelyn's Pictures

Well here are pictures of Adelyn, sorry it took so long for me to post--It looks like Kari took care of it though. It's great being a dad! We love her!!

Same old, same old

Hillary requested that everybody post things about their lives. Nothing really that exciting in ours. I am 3 months along now and doing much better than I was (I was pretty sick a couple of weeks ago). Eric is working as an orderly-I'm not sure that I posted that when it happened-for a little over a month now and he absolutely loves it. We should be receving his MCAT scores any day now and he's almost done with his applications. Umm...that's about it for us. Jana and Jason don't have the internet so I'll let you know how they're doing. They are tired. Adelyn is keeping them awake at night, but they absolutely love being parents. Jason is quite the doting father and Jana is just happy to have Adelyn here and safe. Jana and Jason are moving August 17-they hope-and do already have an apartment in Memphis (Kristina Northgrave and her husband live in that same apartment bldg.). So we're all doing well out here in Utah. Nothing really that exciting or new. We will know the sex of the baby in 4 weeks-hopefully the week when we come to Michigan. That's all. Eric and I can't wait to come out-it's been so yucky hot and dry here. No green and a lot of wild fires. We've started a count down-27 days! See you Michigan guys soon! Love ya!

House update

The siding is finished on the house. They actually finished on Tuesday, but Charlie has to put the front porch back on so I'm not going to post pictures until that happens. It looks so awesome though. It's a totally new house! We are so pleased.

Baby pictures!

Since Jana and Jason got some pictures of their cute new baby posted to the blog, we thought we'd share some of ours. Look how cute he is in his first one-sie!

Charlie and Pinckney

Just thought I'd let you know that Charlie had his third interview with Pinckney this morning. It was with the assistant superintendent. Charlie feels he did well, feels like the conversation flowed and that he answered the questions well. Unfortunately we won't find out whether or not he gets the job until late next week because the other candidate won't be interviewed until next week. We are a little disappointed, but understand that schools in Michigan can be as picky as they won't and run things as fast or as slow as they want because there aren't many job openings out there. So Charlie will continue to take interviews as they come up, although, they aren't coming a quickly as they were. If nothing pans out by the end of the month, we will start looking out of state. Charlie's brother, Les, took a job in Texas last week. So they will move out there at the beginning of August. Well, really, Les is going first and Kristi will follow in a couple of months, or so that's what we've been told. I think it will be good for them to go out there. We hope everyone is doing well. Maybe someone could post an update on their lives soon?