Rabbit Fest!!

This last week was very eventful! We OFFICIALLY moved into our home! I organized the last closet, and cleaned everything...literally. It took forever, but it was worth it. We also had some friends over for dinner on Thursday night, and we planted an orange tree in our backyard Friday. The best part of the week though, was the weekend.

The third weekend in May is Copperas Cove's Rabbit Fest, a small fair that hearkens back to the days when the locals would arm themselves with clubs to round up those pesky bunnies in one fantasticly violent showdown. However, thanks to modern inventions (and PETA) Rabbit Fest is now a family-friendly carnival, complete with rides, food, games, and a "Bunny Parade." I really don't know why, but I have been looking forward to this day like no tomorrow, and I was not disappointed! And, to make matters even better, Bekah and Nathan (Matt's sister and brother-in-law) came up for the weekend and got to go with us!

The day actually started out very rainy and stormy, and we were all very sad. We made the best of it by renting "Taken", which, can I just tell you, has convinced me that Bennett will never leave the house by himself until he moves next door at the age of 37. It was terrifying. Then we made some delicious oatmeal cookies and talked till the rain stopped.

We finally made it out to Rabbit Fest around 4:00 in the afternoon and it was GREAT!!! Hardly anybody was there at first because of the rain, so we never stood in one line. And these rides were pretty good sized, too! We went on ride after ride until Matt and Nathan got sick and I got such an adrenaline rush I felt like I could run a hundred miles. Bekah spent most of the time with Bennett (Thank you Bekah!) but she did go on the Tilt-A-Whorl after much prodding. All in all it was a really fun day...and we are all glad it didn't involve any clubs. :)


Bennett is an excellent helper in the kitchen. Here, we are snapping green beans for dinner with the Lake family. We had delicious ribs (by Matt) steak (by Kevin Lake) and a plethora of side dishes (by me and Bennett).

Matt has always wanted an orange tree in our backyard, so Friday they went on sale and he finally got his dream. It's pretty little now, but we will water it with love and affection and it should give us oranges almost all year round. Texas whether is great.

Bennett and Bea

Uncle Nathan

It was pretty chilly outside when we went to Rabbit Fest, so Bennett got to wear is little camo jacket for the first time...

...and so did Bekah. :)

Matt and me on one of the carnival rides at Rabbit Fest. It was pretty intense, but we made it.

The dreaded Tilt-A-Whorl! There is a movie of Matt and Nathan making poor Bekah scream on this ride, but it took way too long to download, so you will just have to use your imagination.

Because of all the rain it was SOOO muddy, so some genius decided to spread hay all over the mud, thinking it would help. Instead, it created this thick, brick-like substance that stuck to everything, including the wheels of the stroller. Needless to say, we were practically dragging that thing by the end of the day. It was well worth it though!

Aunt Bekah was fabulous! She took such good care of Bennett AND me! We sure do love her! Thank you Bekah!


Me and Bennett-Boo. This isn't the best picture of him, but I had to redeem myself after posting that horrible picture of me last week. See? I do still do my hair...sometimes.

Bennett has learned to really enjoy taking baths lately. He coos and smiles at me the whole time, and it is one of the best parts of my day. This is him all wrapped up in his yellow duckie towel.

My Fabulous Mother's Day Weekend!!

I LOVE BEING A MOM!! This weekend proved to me that nine months of morning sickness, an intense 16 hour labor with extensive reconstructive surgery following, and 6 weeks of little to no sleep and zero personal time is TOTALLY worth it to be able to eat in bed!! :)

My Mother's Day weekend started Saturday when we decided we had had enough of the inside of our house and it was time to get out into the sunshine. We started out with the intention of going to one of the many lakes surrounding our area, but on the way there we ran into our city park and decided that was good enough for us! It is a beautiful, BIG park, with a public swimming pool, creeks and ponds (with ducks!), and about 10 baseball fields. We spent the morning walking around and watching all the different baseball games going on.

That night we were talking about how we had gotten a brand new tent right after our wedding that was still in the package, and we agreed that it was a shame it hadn't been used yet. We chose to remedy the situation, and set it up in our living room! Then we played Monopoly in it, and I DESTROYED Matt, even though he had Boardwalk and Park Place (So take that, Mr. I-Think-I'm-So-Good-At-Boardgames!! Ha, Ha, Ha!!)

Mother's Day was equally as good, complete with a delicious breakfast in bed, chocolates, and cards from both Matt and Bennett. I also got my Mother's Day Flower from our ward, hand delivered by a happy little deacon. Life is so good, and I LOVE BEING A MOM!!

This is us walking by one of the smaller ponds at the Copperas Cove City Park. Matt is a pushing-the-stroller kind of guy. He loves to take walks with Bennett and tell him all about how much fun they are going to have when he gets big.

Ducks!! I am so excited, because there is nothing quite like feeding a duck!

Bennett is a happy boy whenever we are outside.

He is also very sociable, and waved to everybody we met along the way. :)

Just the three of us! (looking at myself in this picture reminds me why I am always the one behind the camera."Do your hair, Woman!")

Matt and Bennett playing Monopoly in our tent, in our living room...and did I mention I won...like, by a lot? :)

My Wonderful breakfast in bed and my chocolates and cards. I am so happy to be married to a man who can cook!

This is the cute card "Bennett" gave me, signed personally by him with his little hand print. It was a music card that played the song from Jungle Book, "Wanna Be Like You", and as you can tell, he was very excited about giving it to me. Matt gave m a very nice music card too, sweet guy. I am so lucky!

Oh, To Be A Cantoneere!

This was a fabulous weekend! For those of you who have not heard of Canton before, it is a tiny town in Texas that has one of the biggest trade markets in America. I have heard about the wonders and glories of Canton from my aunts and my grandma for years, and have looked forward to the day when I, too, could join the ranks of thrifty shoppers who happily sift through endless piles of assorted junk to find that one item they can not live without. Oh, to be a Cantoneere! And this was the weekend for me!

Matt, Bennett and I loaded up the car early Friday and headed for Dallas, where my Grandma and Grandpa Hazard live. It is about a three hour drive from where we live, and is absolutly beautiful in the Spring with the wildflowers and green grass all along the highways. We spent Friday night watching a movie and showing Bennett off to Grandma and her Bridge-Playing Friends, and caught up on all the latest Hazard family gossip. :)

The next morning, we woke up early and headed to Canton...and it is HUGE!!! It's like, if you took every craft store and food stand you could ever imagine, and smashed them all into a dozen ginormous warehouses with enough people to populate a small town. We spent the day walking around, buying stuff for our house (we are officially DONE spending money on this dang house!) and eating food that will probably stay in our artaries for years to come. It was great!

Bennett was a trooper and slept in his stroller most of the time, and Grandpa only got lost a few times. :)

Just hanging out with Great Grandma and Grandpa. We love them!

These two are a couple of par-tay animals!

Bennett was so good the entire weekend! It was his first official "trip" where we actually packed luggage and stayed overnight at a different house than our own, and he was fabulous. Unfortunately, me and Matt were so on the ball we forgot to bring his stroller for Canton. Luckily, Grandma and Grandpa had this little beauty, so we were saved from having to carry him around ten miles of craft booths. Yay for good planning!

So although there is some really cool stuff at Canton, there is still the occasional questionable item...


...and the occasional questionable people! (Don't ask me what they are doing here--I think they were actually talking to each other!)

Matt pushed Bennett tipped back like this all day, since he is too little for this stroller still. He is the best Daddy! I am such a lucky girl to have my two wonderful boys!

Here is our living room with my big metal thingy we got from Canton on the wall. I really like how it looks, and I finally feel like this room is almost done now!

We also found two big decorative square things to go above our bed, since we don't have a headboard yet. This is a pretty bad picture of them, but they look really good with the bedspread in real life. (There is a cool decorative pattern on them if you look close.)

And here's Bennett. He is looking more and more like a baby and less and less like a newborn. He is even beginning to try out his funny little smile and is developing quite the personality. We sure love this guy, and can't imagine life without him!

Oh, and my "Picture Of The Week" is of Matt after burping our gassy little boy! I tell you what, this baby has got some power! I never knew so much could come out of someone so little! :)

Moving In!

Well this has been quite the exciting week! Matt, Bennett and I all moved into our new house in Copperas Cove, Texas, last Wednesday and we have been going, going, going ever since! Actually, it really hasn't been too bad. We have had the chance to live just a few hours away from our now-house for the last year or so, and have been slowly moving things up the entire time. That meant that all we really had to "move" was our clothes, bathroom stuff, and last minute items we needed right up until the time we left San Antonio for Copperas Cove. However, these items have taken surprisingly long to put away.

I am focusing on one room at a time, and am pleased to announce that Bennett's Nursery (which is SO cute!), the kitchen, our closet, both bathrooms, and the guest bedroom are finally finished. Matt also did a lot of work on the garage, and it is officially a full-scale wood shop now, except for my "laundry room" area. It has been so fun to get to clean and organize and I feel so blessed and happy to have the opportunity to get to live in this beautiful home with my beautiful family!

Some highlights of the week include Matt FINALLY going to work! This was a big deal, because we have been waiting and waiting and WAITING for this moment when he is no longer training but actually working! We also went to our ward for the first time, which was fabulous, and had dinner with a really fun family we met there. Matt has also already been involved in a service project and got to use his chain saw (always good). We painted the kitchen, mowed the lawn, and did some sight-seeing of our new little town. All in all it was a great week and we are so happy!

Anyway, nobody really reads what people write on blogs, they just look at the pictures, so here are a few new ones for ya!


This is Bennett's cute nursery, although we have hung a few more pictures on the walls and there is a REALLY cute valance above the window and big shelves above the rocking chair you can't see here. The best part is that this whole thing only took about $30 to create, since all the furniture was given to us and we made all the bedding and rocking chair cover!

Matt and Bennett working on the bench in the garage. We think Bennett is showing an early interest in building...at least that what Matt wants to believe. :)

Painting the kitchen.

The Kitchen painted! (It is hard to get a good picture of this area because of the huge window, but the color is not as dark as it looks here.)

The rest of my beautiful kitchen...which, have I mentioned, is totally clean and organized? :)

Matt breaking in his new lawnmower. Yipee!

Our backyard! And yes, it is GREEN here in Texas...at least for now.

Grilling us up a couple of hamburgers on our back porch.

And me eating the hamburgers Matt grilled us up...and looking a little too excited about it. (But seriously, these were probably the best things I have ever eaten!)


And what would our blog be without at least a few pictures and video of our cute Bennett-Boy? :)

"Hello!"

My Army Men

Sleeping (Momma likes it when this happens!)

I LOVE this video! You have to watch it to the very end to see why...it's just so typical of this little boy. :)

Our Little Boy

Ok, it has been awhile since we have updated our blog, but we have finally moved into our house in Copperas Cove and we officially have HIGH SPEED INTERNET again! I am so excited! This means that we can update this thing much more often and with much less frustration than previously experienced using the middle-of-nowhere internet! Yay! And so, to kick off this new ability, we have created the typical "new parent" blog by putting a thousand pictures of our baby on it!

Bennett's first couple of weeks have been very fun and exciting! We spent one week with Maime and Pop (Matt's Mom and Dad) and then one week with Grandma and Grandpa Hazard (my Mom and Dad). We also got to see Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Hazard (my Dad's mom and dad) and almost EVERYBODY from Matt's family, including 7 of his brothers and sisters, their spouses, and ALL their kids! We blessed him on Easter, took lots of walks outside, and even moved to a new home! Wow! So far life has been busy, busy, busy, but soooo good! And so, without further ado, here's Bennett!

Oh-My-Goodness this is my favorite picture of Bennett! I think it is because we were trying so hard to make him look cute, and he would have none of it! I know I am a little biased, but I think he is still cute even when he is fussy.

Both Grandmas and both Grandpas. Also, notice the adorable hunting camouflaged onsie Bennett is wearing. Daddy got to dress him on this day. :)

Maime and Pop during the Bell/Hargrave Family Easter Party (hence the ears.)

This little boy is so good natured and easy-going. He even sleeps pretty well at night, usually just waking up every 3-4 hours to eat and then falling right back to sleep. I think somebody knew I needed an easy baby first...although I am a little afraid of what the next one might be like. :)

Four Generations. How cool!

So we actually forgot to take pictures of Bennett on his blessing day with our own camera...I know, what great parents we are...but this is ALMOST what his blessing outfit looked like. It was just a cute little white sleeper we found, and I loved that it was so clean and simple. And don't worry, we have about a million pictures of the blessing, just none on our camera that we can upload to the blog.

Great Grandpa Hazard and Bennett just hanging out at our new house

This is one of my favorite pictures from this week. It looks like somebody just told Great Grandma Hazard and Bennett a good joke.

There are A LOT more photos I could put on here, but I'll just stop now because I could go on forever. :) We will also try to take some pictures of our house and other things that our little family is doing and put those on here too. That's all for now though!

Well here we are, the newest edition to the Hargrave Clan "Bennett Wayne Hargrave". He was born March 31, 2009 at 3:42 p.m. He weighed in at a whopping 7lbs 14 oz. Quite the feat for a little 5ft. 3in speck. Born in San Antonio, Texas at North Central Baptist Hospital. Oh and Haley says that he looks just like his daddy.

-Haley in labor ( This was the better side of life)-

-Bennett Wayne Hargrave-

-"Hello Daddy"-

-The new Hargrave family ( Thankyou Rachel and Mark for the blanket everyone in the hospital loved it)-

-Our little man just taking a nap-

-Oh yeah we bought a new car. We figured what the heck lets buy a new car, new baby, new house, new furniture...whatever...no really the sponge bob car finally went the way of the junkyard...may it rest in pieces :(