Hayden's Toy Drive

I received a call today from one of the developmental pediatricians at the Melmed Center. The Filipino-American Medical Community (Arizona Society of Phillipine Health Professionals) is picking up Hayden's Toy Drive as their charity to support for the year. I am so excited. I need to get them 100 postcards this week and they will begin promoting it for us. This should help us raise toys for Phoenix Childrens Hospital and help get Hayden's Toy Drive out to more areas.

I really need to work on getting Hayden's Toy Drive as an approved 501c charity. We are planning on establishing Hayden's Charities, which will one day take it from just collecting toys to also providing scholorships for future pediatric heart surgeons and so much more. It is a process and I love seeing that more people are becoming aware of Hayden's Toy Drive.

Grandma's Farewell

We had a farewell party for Grandma Joyce last Sunday. We had all of the family over to wish her good luck. It was a lot of fun! We are going to miss Grandma a lot over here. Hayden is going to miss her picking him up from school once a week and them going to IHOP. He is also going to miss all the time she spends playing puzzles with him. But, we are very excited for the new opportunities and experiences she is going to have on her mission. I hope she knows how much we love her.

The best sister

My incredible sister, Jodi, made the neatest book for Hayden. She took Hayden out for a photo shoot in his superhero costumes and then made a book for him. It is amazing!

I brought the book home for Hayden tonight and showed it to him. He was estatic! He asked if it was going to be in all of the stores. Then he said, "Hey, me and Jodi are going to be famous!"

He called Jodi on the phone to thank her and asked if she could make copies for all the kids in his class. He said that once the kids read his book, they would all want a copy. He wanted to make sure that we sent a copy to Bryson and Cooper, because they would love it the most.

Jodi, thank you! Thank you! The book turned out amazing! Although, no shocker, everything Jodi does turns out amazing! What a self esteem booster for Hayden. He has smiled so big all night and is so proud of the book that Jodi made.

Scripture study

Leave it to a six year old to put me in my place. This morning at breakfast, Hayden asked if we were going to read scriptures. I told him that I was late for work and we had to hurry to school. He looked at me and said, "But mom, you are really grumpy. I think we better read the scriptures and you will be in a better mood."

Tonight, Jodi and I went to enrichment night to hear Jenny Phillips, a church singer, sing and hear "The Parable of the Princesses". It was fantastic! What stuck out to me the most was having her describe the physical signs of physical hunger and thirst and then she listed the signs of spirtual thirst. Some of the signs were irritibility, grumpiness and stress. I realized that I need to be spending more time on the things that really matter and not get so caught up in all of the outside duties that really don't matter.

I immediately was taken back to my conversation with Hayden this morning. I am so humbled at how he can see the bigger picture and knows what is important at such a young age.

So, tonight I came home, picked him up, and told him that he was right, starting tomorrow morning, we were going to be better at reading the scriptures. His reply once again, put me in my place. He said, "Mom, why wait until morning? How about we go read them now."

City Slickers

All the Simonton's and Bair's had a barbeque out in the desert on Saturday night. It was to celebrate all of the April birthday's, including Thomas, Bonnie, Katelyn, Austin and Alec. The kids all went horseback riding. Hayden loved it and looked like a natural on the horse. He sure loves animals, any kind. He want to be a vet when he grows up.



Hayden sure loves his Grandpa!



The boys cracked me up, out came a dog, and all the boys came over to see the dog. They were so entertained throwing it sticks and water bottles and having the dog bring them back.



We all took a wagon ride out into the desert. We looked like a bunch of city slickers that had no business being out in the dirt and in the desert. None of us are very adventuresome or used to being outdoors. But, we had a great time and loved the cowboy cookout. I think all food tastes better when it is cooked outdoors. The kids loved roasting marshmellows and the campfire! I loved it, we got our "camping" fill in without having to set up a tent or actually camp. The best part of camping is the campfire!



Hayden, Braden & Brooklyn



We did have a great time. I am so lucky that we have so much family that live close so we can get together. I love the relationship that all the cousins have formed. They are lucky to have each other. I'm so glad that I have such a wonderful family.

Hannah Montana

Hayden's first little crush is Hannah Montana. He is not interested at all in Miley Cyrus, only Hannah Montana. Hayden just had to have a guitar so he could start writing songs for Hannah Montana's band. His latest ambition is to be her guitar player in her band. It is a crack up to listen to him sing songs to her. He keeps begging me for tickets to her concerts, well, even if I wanted to spend a $100 per ticket, you can't find them. Well, Suzi came through and is his hero. She bought us all tickets to the Stadium of Fire in Provo and Hannah Montana is performing at the event. We are all excited to go, especially Hayden. I love celebrating the 4th of July in Provo and how fun that we get to go to the Stadium of Fire this year. And, a bonus, Thomas' mom will be serving a mission in Utah, so we get to visit her too. Thanks, Suzi! You're the best!

Luau

Little missy Katelyn turned 7 years old on Saturday. We sure had fun at her Luau swimming party. Rosie had it decorated so cute with all Hawaiian decor. We barbecued hamburgers and the kids had so much fun swimming. The kiddos all swam for four hours, had a pinata and a water balloon fight. It was so much fun.




I think the dads had just as much fun, if not more fun that the kids. Thomas, Jake and Ben definitely threw more water balloons at each other than any of the kids did.





It was a wonderful birthday party and perfect weather. I still can't believe Katelyn is already 7 years old. She is growing up so fast!

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Cosmic Bowling

Hayden and Thomas both love to go bowling. As for me, I'd much rather bowl on the Wii. I don't have to leave the house and I bowl a lot better on the tv. But, since the boys love it, we took Hayden cosmic bowling. He had never been and loved it. He loved the music, the lights and the fog. The music came on and he started dancing all over the place. He is so funny!



He's got the moves!



Have I mentioned how much Hayden dislikes his picture being taken?



It was worth going, we all had a ton of fun!

St. Patrick's Day

Hayden and I went to IHOP for St. Patrick's Day. I knew I should be a good mom and make green food all day. Hayden was headed to Danya's house during the day, so we got up and went out to breakfast early. IHOP was serving green eggs and ham. Hayden loved them. Who knew that he would like spinich in his eggs? However, he did not like the Who pancakes, because they were too sweet and had candy. He definitely cracks me up. He will eat the spinich and not the candy.

What a guy!

I have been in spring cleaning mode. I have been organizing closets, de-cluttering and deep cleaning. Luckily, I have a great husband that is always willing to help out. Of course, I picked cleaning out the closets and stuck him with the toilets. I'm lucky he's such a great sport.