Good Ol' Dad

Mackayla loves to help out with everything. She always wants Daddy to hold her as he mows the lawn. Its her way of making things easier for him, cause you know otherwise he'd get really lonely mowing all by himself.

Today when after Jared got home from a long day of work, he was in Mackayla's room playing with her while I was preparing dinner. After a while Mackayla came into the kitchen and I asked her where Daddy was. She said "he's sleeping." I went in to check and sure enough he was completely asleep. Looks like they had been having a good time though before he fell asleep.

Special Sunday Interview

A visit from the Hatfields

This past week my dad, mom, Heather, and Buffy were able to come and visit us. It was so nice to have company during the days while Jared was at work. Mackayla of course LOVED having them here as well. We had a lot of fun and they helped me get things in order in both Mackayla's room and the new baby's room.

Mackayla has been wanting to pick out and put on her own clothes a lot lately. She was wondering if her cousin Jaden would like to go into the fashion business together when they get a little older.

Eating some popcorn with Grandpa and Grandma

While everyone was here we were able to go to Jared's summer work party. We had a wonderful, all expense paid evening at Seven Peaks water park.

Jared and I went out to a movie one night and Mackayla went out with her Grandparents and Heather. They discovered she loves to eat tacos from tacobell. She's been talking about the tacos ever since.

Only three years ago...

It was three years ago this week that Jared proposed to me. Amazing how time flies!

Now almost two kids later, I'm sure it was the best decision he ever made! (mine too!)

Speaking of the approaching second child, we are accepting any ideas for a name for this little boy. Please feel free to post a comment and give us some suggestions.

Happy Birthday Jared!

Jared had his 28th birthday today. He decided to open his presents as soon as he got home from work. Mackayla was more than happy to help him.

For his birthday dinner he requested a mexican meal. I made chicken mole, and he even got to have his favorite tamarindo drink (non-alcoholic). I don't know how well the whole dinner turned out, but I'm sure he appreciated my efforts.

After dinner we went to an Orem Owls Baseball game. It was a lot of fun, and Mackayla loved cheering for the team.

I made Jared tell me what kind of a cake he wanted for his birthday, and he finally came up with a saw cake. So in case you can't tell, its a saw.

This is a picture of Mackayla at a birthday party for her cousin Sophie a couple days ago. She hit the pinata once, but was more interested in just playing with the golf club.

Family Reunion in Yakima

We spent the last week in Yakima with the Hatfields. There was a big Tree Family Reunion over the weekend. We had a great time, and did so many things. Mackayla loved being with family and cousins!

The Saturday we arrived the whole family was able to do some temple work for their family.

At the Tree Family Reunion, wearing our Tree Family t-shirts

Grandma Davenport (Tree) with all 7 Hatfield cousins. We celebrated her 90th birthday at the reunion with 90 (counting soon-to-be-born children) descendents in attendence.

Mackayla loved taking rides with her daddy on one of the Tree's farm vehicles.

Grandma Davenport (Tree) and her 5 children.

Mackayla wanted to help her dad win the limbo. Too bad it didn't work. He went a long way though.

We spent a couple of days boating and playing at the lake. This is Mackayla on the beach with her newest cousin Ethan.

Jared and Mackayla playing in the water. Meagan is in the background.

Mackayla would have stayed in the water all day. She absolutely loved it!

Relaxing with cousin Jaden and soaking up the sun (in the shade).

Riding on the tube with Jared. Melissa went too, but she wouldn't let us go very fast.

Crashed out! Mackayla had so much fun with all the family, but she was certainly worn out by the end of the trip!

Below is a video clip of some of our activities. Just click on the play button (triangle) in the middle of the box to see it.

Camping at Tinney Flats

We decided last minute to go camping for the weekend since it was so hot down in Provo (we know that you people in Arizona might think we're wimps, but so what). Luckily we didn't meet the bear that had been seen a week earlier in the area, but I had a rifle there to protect the family either way. Melissa did feel like she was going to be eaten by the bugs though. I told her that they were termites and didn't want to eat her, but that didn't seem to relieve the stress. We had a great time anyway!



Mackayla wasn't too sure about putting the mashmallows in the fire. She was even less keen on eating them after they came out. Hopefully she'll learn how fun roasting mashmallows is by our next camping trip (Melissa told me that we can go again in five or more years).



Mackayla loved sleeping in the tent. She curled up right next to daddy and slept great all night long! I, on the other hand, woke up several time to move her back to the middle of the blow-up mattress while Melissa enjoyed most of the night on 2/3 of the mattress with all the room a pregnant woman could dream of.



Mackayla created a new game. We told her not to touch the car because it was dirty, so she would walk over to it, point to any given spot, and ask "is this dirty?" This is just a guess, but we must have heard those words at least 17 million times!

Ahh! The breakfast of champions! No, not wheaties, I made eggs and pancakes. The cooking went a little slower than using our griddle back home, but we survived. We had a great time, and Melissa was a good sport about everything. She even said that we can go camping again before the five year mark. She asked on the way home if I knew of any good camping spots without bears or bugs that we could go next time.

God Bless America

Happy 4th of July!

We had a great fourth of July. We went to a parade in the morning. Mackayla loved seeing everything and waving to everybody. She also did a great job of waving her flag!

Mackayla was anxiously awaiting the start of the festivities in our front yard. Jared put on quite a show with his own fireworks. Then we ejoyed our perfect view of the Stadium of Fire show with the Henrys.

Tyler, Brooke, Ryan, Mackayla, and Michelle