TO: Dallon

Hey little bro! Looks like there is a new face on our family blog. Isn't the polite thing to do is to at least introduce us?!?

Hello from Dallon!

Hi everyone! Cool Blog. Check us out all techy now! I figured I'd join in on the fun and let you know whats up with me. I really like it in SLC now. It's lots of fun. I have have 3.5 more weeks of my job here so I am desperately looking for another job around here somewhere. There is a guy that might want me as an assistant manager at an indoor soccer place so that would be cool. The job I'm at now is fun. I literally get paid to play sports with kids. It gets really hot though. The following are just some pictures from the past few weeks. Love you all!

Gregg's finishing the basement!

Gregg has started finishing the two final bedrooms and the last bathroom in the basement. These bedrooms will be Maigen and Carson's. They are really excited to finally have a room they can call their own. When they are with us, they have been staying in the spare bedroom updstairs. That basically translates to where their clothes and stuff is kept. I think they all sleep in a different place every other weekend.

Here are some progress pics.

Gregg is going to add a very small closet where he is standing. It is probably only going to be able to store board games and small stuff like that....

Here is the view standing in the bathroom looking into the finished part of the family room..

I will continue to update the progress.
I hope everybody is having a great summer!

See ya soon!

Love, Dayna and Fam!

Tami's July 24th Pics

So Dayna pretty much summed up our 24th! We had a reaaly great time. I am multi-taskin & feeding Alora right now, so tyoing is not easy...so here are our pics:

Tami's July 24th

The 24th of July at The Watts Home

The 24th of July this year was spent at work and at Tami's house. I had to work on the 24th, and Gregg was suppose to have the day off. Since I had to work, Gregg decided to work too. I took Kendyl to daycare and Kylee stayed home. Katelin came home from Girls Camp on Thursday. She has been with the Young Women at Camp Lomia. From what I have heard, it sounds like she had a great time.
Once I got to work, they told us we could leave early (which translated to 2:00 PM). Once I left, I went to pick up Kendyl from daycare and the sitter wasn't home. So, I spent the afternoon at Tami's house. I watched Alora while she cooked and cleaned. Tami was having friends over for dinner and fireworks. So, Gregg, Kendyl and I joined them for a backyard barbecue. Katelin and Kylee had gone with their Dad for the long weekend.
Tami and family have an awesome new swing set in the backyard. We put Kendyl in the baby swing and she loved it. She was swinging and swinging and swinging. If we stopped the swing, she would instantly cry and have a bit of a tantrum. So, we'd send her swinging again and the big grin would instantly be back on her face.

Kendyl was also fascinated by Alora. Not more than a second after this picture of Kendyl pushing Alora's tummy was taken, Alora lost her dinner. Kendyl had pushed it up and Alora let it out. Sorry Tami!!

We also called Derrek and sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the ol' guy! He wasn't home, so he has a fun little treasure on the answering machine.

Kendyl was very tired and very dirty from all of the excitement, so we didn't stay for the fireworks extravaganza presentation. We went home....Kendyl got her bath.....my flowers got some water......and we went to bed.
Thank you Tami and Rich for a great evening! I hope everybody had a wonderful 24th of July.

Hatch/Hayman 4th of July Pictures

I sure don't know how to do this very well. I'm learning and slowly figuring this out. Here are some pictures of our 4th of July. Thanks to everybody who posted their awesome pics. This is great! If you'll remember, we spent the 4th in Lava Hot Springs. Here are some of the weekends events. Love you all!!

The Merrill's 4th of July

Hello everyone! I am finally posting my first blog and per the request of Dayna I am sharing our Independence Day celebration.
The fourth of July was very similar for our family as the past several years, short of one minor detail ... none of the Williams family came this year :-( Fortunately, the Merrill family all came and we had a wonderful time. We had the traditional BBQ, sidewalk firework show and watched the Brigham City fireworks from the driveway. Below are a few pictures from that evening. God bless the USA!

I thought it would be fun to share this video I made several years ago. It is from the summer of 2005. It is funny how the activities were basically the same with a few differences e.g. Derrek was in Iraq, the kids were younger (not the adults, of course) and I was 50 pounds lighter (hmmm). Enjoy (turn the volume up)!

Just showing off Alora Ü

Happy Birthday, Lauri. Reminiscence from Mom

On July 11th, a few years ago (or so it seems to me), we were living in Wells, Nevada. Dad was working for the Southern Pacific Railroad and I had just finished my first year of teaching school. Back in "those days" working while pregnant was not popular. When I told my principal I was expecting he said that if anyone ever complained about my condition I would have to quit. Nothing was said. In fact, when I was 7 months pregnant one of the other teachers told me that someone had said I was expecting a baby, and she said she wished the community would stop starting stories about the teachers.

On Saturday, July 11th, I woke up and knew something was happening. We drove the 50 miles to Elko, which was the closest doctor and hospital, and visited with my doctor. He said I was in labor but to go home, take a walk, and come back later. Rowland and I went to my parents home there in Elko, did as I was told, and returned that evening and was admitted to the Elko General Hospital. In "those days" natural childbirth was the in-thing and, of course, we did not know if we were having a boy or girl until she was born. Also, Elko, being the the progressive place it was, did not allow dads in delivery room. After we checked in, Rowland and I played Scrabble until my brain was too scrambled to think. Lauri was born at 10:04 that night. By the way, there is a reason natural childbirth did not remain a popular option...it was the pits!

While I was in the hospital, my Dad was also a patient. He was recovering from hip replacement surgery. I stayed that first week with my parents in Elko. I think they enjoyed having us there. It was good for me, too, because I had zero experience with newborn babies. When they brought Lauri to me in the hospital to change into her own clothes and take home, I didn't know how to proceed undressing a baby!

From day one we have had the most wonderful daughter! Happy birthday, Lauri!

4th of July

We had a wonderful fourth also. We started the morning at the Perry Fun Run. (A silly joke to me no run is fun). Jacob took 4th place and well I participated. We then got ready and came back to Perry for the great parade and breakfast. Jake and Shelby stayed at the park and played with cousins while we took Rachel for a nap and packed for the rest of the days adventures. We then went back to the park and watched Uncle Ben and friends play ball in the championship game. He did not win this year but has plenty of other times. We then went to my parents where we had a mini family reunion with everyone there except Jeff who was working at his new job. We then rushed to Provo to attend the Stadium of Fire. Shelby and I had tickets and Derrek and Jacob were going to do some male bonding something or other. Shelby and I loved the show. We cried when the flag came out and the families of deployed soldiers. We of course were there with a billion other little girls and their parents. We enjoyed listening to Miley Cyrus (Hannah Montana for those who do not have a pre-teen girl) and the Blue Man Group. Jake and Derrek were able to hear the whole show and even got to see Miley get into her limo and drive away. COOL!! We then joined the crazies leaving the show. Thanks to Jill (Mom and Dad's GPS) we were able to wind through neighborhoods above the campus and then get to our hotel. What a great and long day. Fun for all. Kap

More Fourth

The 4th was different for us this year. In all of the years we have lived in Brigham City this is the first time we have actually gone to the city park and watched the fireworks from there. For many years...like 25...we went to Wells, NV, to get together with Rowland's family. Lauri was one year old the year we start that get-together. The past few years we have met at Lauri's house for dinner with the Merill family and then watched the fireworks from their driveway. Having Tami, Rich, Carter and baby Alora join us this year was great. The city had a big fireworks display and some stirring patriotic music to go with it. After a spectacular sunset, I sat there with my family enjoying the (relatively) cool evening and watching the fireworks. I felt very thankful that we live in this great county, and for the wonderful family we have.

Watts Family 4th of July

So Rich, Carter, Alora & I went to Brigham City to meet up with Mom & Dad. We met at Pioneer Park, and had KFC. We lounged around all afternoon (well, Rich will tell you that I lounged around all day while he chased Carter around the entire park--and this is entirely true!--thanks hon, you're the best!) Then later Dallon and his friend showed up. We hung around until that evening, then watched the fireworks!