~MAY FLOWERS~ (Matt titled this)

Hello, again! Since all three of us were in the fetal position with a horrendous stomach flu, I never blogged last week. But here are the pictures I would have put on if I did.

 Grandma and Gunny made a trip down to San Antonio to visit Mary and Wayne, and since we live on the way we were lucky enough to have them stop by for a quick visit. The last time we saw these wonderful people was when Bennett was about 4 months old, so we had lots to catch up on. 

One day last week Matt decided to give me a "Bennett Break" and took the crazy kid fishing. Mostly I think Bennett ended up throwing rocks in the water, but they had a great time being together.

The rocks. Probably a less efficient way to catch fish, but if it worked for the cavemen...

So that was last week. This week, as mentioned before, Bennett was sick Sunday but was mostly recovered before the day was over. Matt got sick Monday night, so Bennett and I spent all day Tuesday staying as far away from him as possible. But to no avail, as I literally kicked the poor guy out of his recovery bed Tuesday night to take care of Bennett while I suffered through the next 24 hours. Thursday morning we were all feeling close to normal, and by the time the weekend rolled around we were ready to be back out in society. Our home and laundry will take several more days to recoup as fully, however.

Thursday night was the Killeen Rodeo opening night and it is free to Military. Bennett and I went last year and had a great time, so we decided to check it out again this year with Matt home to go with us. They fed us dinner and everything (military families) but the bratwurst in a tortilla was an extreme letdown from last year's fantastic catered BBQ. Especially after having the stomach flu. Bennett didn't seem to mind too much though, as he devoured his. I am gagging just thinking about it. (P.S- I look like a homeless person in these pictures. Sorry. Did I mention I had the flu???)

 This is the First Cav team getting ready to perform at the rodeo. Matt was walking by and happened to see his buddy Captain Richardson, who also just happens to be the commander of the horse detachment.

Bennett checking out the steers. He decided he wanted to ride one of those "baby cows" as long as he couldn't ride a bull. I told him I had ridden a baby cow before and it HURT (Hazard Family Reunion 2003) but I don't think he listened.

He finally settled for riding a pony...but only if he could do it by himself, and only if he could do tricks while it was moving.

We are going to spend a lot of time in the hospital in the future if he keeps this up.

Friday morning we packed up the car and drove the 45 minutes to Colorado Bend National Park for a day of hiking, swimming, and camping.

Bennett and Bear were both very excited for their first "official" camping trip (aka: not just in our backyard). Since Matt is in scouts (forever) it seems that every free weekend he has, he spends camping with the boys. So this was our weekend to camp as a family. But alas, it was not to be. When we got there, all the sites were full and there was no room for us to pitch our little tent. But the fact that laying on the ground at nearly 8 months pregnant sounded less than comfortable to me anyway kept our spirits high, and we decided to still do all the activities we had planned, but just go home at the end of the day. It was a win, win for everybody.

 The first thing we did was hike into Gorman Falls. It was about three miles in and Bennett did a great job walking most of the way. We only carried him once when it became so rocky that he was going the pace of a snail with a limp. Other than that though, he did great and kept us all entertained with his little made-up songs the whole time.

 Matt and Bennett, walking and singing about all the pretty yellow flowers. I love these boys.

Goreman Falls. I told Matt that this was the prettiest place I had seen since living in Texas. It was seriously like a tropical waterfall you would find in South America somewhere. Amazing.

We made it!

The hike out (and up) was a little harder for the shorter legs in our company, so Matt carried Bennett on his shoulders most of the way. All in all it was a great hike and it felt good to be outside...even if it was 98*

Once we made it back to our car, we drove a little ways to find a natural water slide area where swimming was allowed. We had to hike in another .5 miles to actually get to the pools, but it was worth it since we had the place to ourselves and the water felt SO good after all the walking.

 The "slides" were a little rocky for Matt and me, but Bennett didn't seem to notice. Oh, to be young!

At the bottom of the slides was a big pool that we could jump off the rocks into. There were also a bunch of little fishies that sort of freaked me out, but they left us alone for the most part.

When we were done swimming, Matt and I found a little day camp area and made tinfoil dinners while Bennett took a nap in the air-conditioned car. After dinner, we packed up our stuff and drove home to spend the night in our soft, comfortable beds. It was easily the best "camping" trip I have ever been on and we will be back to this Park again many times.

And now here are some other pictures, for your viewing pleasure. (Matt uploads the pictures and I just caption them and don't ask too many questions.)

Here's some pictures of our gardens. They are doing very well, and we have enjoyed many green beans, peas, squash, strawberries, and cucumbers from this one.

Here is the second garden with the tomatoes, okra, carrots, peppers, jalapenos, and onions. Bennett helps Matt out here every day, and has since learned the lingo of the gardener in so doing. The other day he told me in an almost Texan accent, "Mommy, our tomatoes are growin' good, but our bell peppers are hurting a little bit." It's like I'm talking to Matt sometimes but in a three-year-old body. I'll have little Southern boys whether I want to or not I guess...it's a good thing I want to :) 

And these are our baby birds. The story is: Last year a bird built a nest in this very spot above our BBQ and laid eggs in it...then she left and never came back and I eventually had to throw it over the fence. Well, this year the same bird (we named her Bula) came back and tried to build a nest in Bennett's toy cabinet on the back porch. I knew that once she figured out how often we were in that thing though, she would not be very happy with her choice of real estate. So I took it down...EIGHT TIMES. Talk about not getting the point! Finally, Bula must have got the message that she wasn't welcome in the toy cabinet and we didn't see her for a few weeks. Then this last week we were out on our patio when we noticed yet another nest, but this time on the shelf we have above our grill. Matt was about to pull it down when I told him I felt bad for poor Bula, and maybe she was out of the way enough this time to keep it up. Well, it's a good thing I said something, because right after I did we noticed movement inside the nest, and found six (extremely ugly, featherless) baby birds inside! Over the last week they have gotten feathers and are much cuter, and we have fun sitting on our porch watching Bula swoop back and forth bringing her babies food. One day soon they are going to start trying to fly, and then I'm not sure what will happen, but we are enjoying our new pets for now and teaching Bennett about nature. 

So that's about it. I have lots and lots more to say about life in general, and one day I am going to sit down and say it. But since our last two blogs have been ridiculously long, I think we will keep it at this for now.

Life is good :)

Post Postponed

Today was Stake Conference. We woke up, got dressed, went to the stake center, and listened to almost all of the talks. Bennett was surprisingly content to simply sit on our laps and lay his head on our shoulders almost the entire time. It was so nice...

and then he threw up. All over the church.

So the rest of the day Matt and I have been rotating turns between napping and holding the bowl for our poor little sickie. And I must say, my nap turn was much longer than Matt's. He is a great guy.

So for now I think I am going to postpone this week's blog post.
But it will come.
Just as soon as the laundry is finished...

Graduation Time!

May 8th--I am sitting in the Darnal Hospital Laboratory testing room, waiting for my number to be called to find out if I have gestational diabetes…again. And so since I have about four hours to kill, I decided to bring along the laptop and get something productive done.

(May 13th--SIDE NOTE: This was a crazy week. I was indeed again diagnosed with diabetes (hooray), and subsequently got to spend the next three mornings at various doctor and nutritionist appointments. As Matt mentioned in the previous blog post, work was insane for him and we hardly ever saw each other before falling into bed every night. Bennett was shuffled from friend to friend as all of this was going on, and in the middle of it all, I never got this post up. However, I really did write this Tuesday morning, as I was sitting in the hospital laboratory. We just never posted till now. Anyway...)

This last Thursday (May 3rd) Matt was able to take a few days off and we traveled as a family to Oklahoma for Griffin and Ashland’s graduations. Griffin graduated from Law school, and Ashland from her nursing program. My mom and dad were there as well, and it was so fun to see them for such an amazing event.

One morning we took Bennett and Zoey to the park. Bennett was in awe of this “big ball” and spent a long time climbing it and being trapped inside of it with Grandma.

 Zoey playing happily in the sand…

 …Zoey after Bennett threw a handful of sand in her unsuspecting face. Later, Zoey got back at Bennett by hitting him on the head with several wooden blocks. Good cousins.

Friday (May 4th) was Ashland’s graduation from her nursing program. Before the ceremony, we were able to give her a cardiac stethoscope to celebrate all the hard work she accomplished. We know she'll be awesome at using it.

Bennett and Zoey at Ashland's graduation. We had excellent seats...

Ashland’s graduation. Do you see her? She’s three-ish rows from the front, second-ish one in from the left. We were lucky she was so near the front, since Bennett and Zoey were both very much done with clapping by the time her name was called.

There she is! (the blurry one.)

Matt and I took Bennett and Zoey home to bed, but my mom and dad and Griffin stayed the whole time. Griffin was very emotional about the whole thing. (Just kidding. He had TERRIBLE allergies the entire week. But if there ever was a time to be emotional, I guess this would be it.)

The boys got to go golfing a few of the mornings and always came home with lots of stories to tell. Here’s the two most important men in my life, my dad and my Matt.

Griffin and Matt looking very golfy.

Griffin’s graduation was the next day on May 5^th, and we were able to give him the same print they hang in Congress for his future office. It’s called, “The Signing of the Declaration” and it was the best idea of what to give a lawyer we could come up with at the time. Hopefully it will inspire him for years to come.

Griffin’s graduation was MUCH smaller than Ashland’s, plus there was a jumbo-tron taking video the entire time. So it was just a little easier to pick him out of the crowd. Here he is walking out and looking very professional.

Griffin’s entire graduating class. Impressively small.

Getting his official master’s cape. Very cool.

Keeping Bennett and Zoey quietly entertained during both graduations was a fun challenge. They both really did do very well though.

 I’ve forgotten to mention the Ashland’s parents, Jeff and Charlotte, her sister Savannah, and her grandma were all also there at both graduations. Jeff and Charlotte live near Griffin and Ashland and I know they have been a HUGE help in getting these two across the stage. And Matt and I sure like them too, since every time we visit they inevitably feed us delicious food and send us home with fresh, homegrown beef. What good people.

Proud parents. My mom was crying most of the time, so she is not going to be happy I put this picture on here, but I had to anyway.

This is my favorite picture from the entire event! What a cute family. (By the way, Zoey is “smiling”, not growling.)

 Here are some more pictures from the days we were together, in no particular order.

Bennett and my dad, making silly faces at Ashland's parent's home. We had a DELICIOUS celebratory dinner there before Ashland's graduation. Oh peach pie...

Bennett and Zoey taking a bath with the big bubbles. Any time one of them fell down into the water we had to hurry and grab them before they got lost in the bubbles and drowned. It was very exciting for everybody.

Uncle Griffin and Bennett playing with the air mattress blower-upper (I'm sure it has a real name.)

Matt forcing eye drops into Griffin's eyes for his allergies. This was a big deal, since apparently Griffin doesn't let people do this to him (Ashland said he is a baby. I guess Matt just has that gentle touch...or he was just really, really desperate for relief.)

 Baby Girl Hazard and Baby Boy Hargrave, due June and July 2012.

Miss Zoey. What a cutie.

Ashland, my mom, and the blue gown.

When Your Loved.....

So I know the note is a little hard to read but let me explain it.....So we have been in the middle of Gunnery here at Ft Hood these last few weeks and still have about a week to go.  I usually am really good about being home around 5:00pm!  Well with Gunnery, since we have units in the field doing 24hr operations we, as the Brigade HQ are doing 24hr operations as well.  Its not to bad but it means being up by 0400 and I usually dont get home until about 2100.  Its kind of a drastic shock to my little family!  So back to the picture.  I came home late one evening and Haley and Bennett didn't know what time I would be home so she took Bennett out for a little walk to get some of his wiggles out.  As I walk through the door I am greeted with the cute's little note and a plate with random gummie bears on it!  It was pretty awesome!  It made all the junk that I have to deal with on a daily bases absolutely worth it...fyi...Bennett did ask if I really enjoyed my gummie bears....Bottom line is, it is sure great to be loved!  I just had to say that to everyone and let everybody know what a wonderful wife and son that I have........