Mustang Children's Christmas Party

Shortly after returning from Tucson, the boys got to attend the Mustang Children's Christmas party. It was western themed so they got cowboy hats and bandanas, fished for gifts, panned for gold and lassoed stick horses. James didn't want to be within 10 ft of Santa. John on the other hand sat on his lap like it was just any other guy. Here are some pics.

Cowboys James and John


Panning for gold


John and Santa

Thanksgiving adventures

We took our very first road trip as a family for Thanksgiving. We traveled to Tucson, AZ to visit Brian's family. We stayed with his aunt Susie and Uncle John. The boys had a marvelous time. The weather was fantastic and so they were outside from sun up to sun down. Susie and John have an awesome playground in their front yard that James just loved. He spent hours swinging and going down the slide. They got so see lots of farm animals up close including horses, hens, and goats. The drive really wasn't that bad. John was fine as long as you read him stories and James was content to watch movies the whole time. We even saw snow on our drive back. A winter storm hit El Paso just as we drove through. Here are some pictures from our trip.

James caught his very first fish!


John lounging in the hammock

Four generations of Hadley men

Catching Up

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted on our blog. I have lots to update everyone on so here goes...

Happy Halloween!!

The boys had a great time wearing their costumes to school and participating in the parade. All the teachers said John was super cute in his cow costume. James had a wonderful time trick or treating. Unfortunately, John was tired and went to bed before it was time to go out. We only had three kids come to the house and were left with tons of candy. Hopefully we'll have a better turn out next year. Here are some photos of the boys in their costumes.

Houston Zoo

Being members of the Houston Zoo is fantastic!! We can go anytime we want for free!! Both of the boys really enjoy looking at the animals and riding the carousel. Thankfully it's getting cooler so the animals come out more. They definitely don't enjoy the heat. One of our favorite activities is to attend the member mornings. The zoo opens at 8 am for members only so you definitely get to beat all the crowds. Plus you can pretty much hit all of the animals before the keeper chat of the month.

John and Mommy in front of the Okapi


James in front of the Okapi


James on the carousel riding a lion

Home Improvements

Well we just finished our first big home improvement project. We installed more ceiling fans to help circulate the air in the house. They've definitely made a huge difference already! We rented a 12' ladder which is HUGE! It just barely fit in our master bedroom. The fan we have in our bedroom is quite noisy so it will be replaced very soon. It's such a shame because it's really a pretty fan. Unfortunately, Brian and I need quiet when we sleep.

Our next project will be painting. We already picked up the paint for the upstairs bathroom and hope to get that completed this weekend. We really like the wall color the builder used but the quality of the paint is really poor. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun picking out colors for all the rooms in our house.

Stitches

Well even though John is only 18 months old, he's the first one of our children to require stitches. He had a fall off the last step and busted his mouth pretty badly. I took him into the pediatric dentist who recommended a stitch to help close up a really bad tear in his gums. John was sedated but it was still painful for him. I felt so badly for him since I had to hold him down on the chair while the dentist did his thing. Thankfully it appears to be healing well. I doubt there will be any scars.