Monday, February 24, 2014

Ummm….Hello?

Is this thing on?!  It’s almost been a year (hehemm…again) since I’ve been on here.  Total slacking going on over here, I know.  But I’ve pretty much lost interest in mommy blogging, along with many other young mothers when their baby numbers multiply. :)  

Lots has been happening…we’ve been adjusting and having fun with our second adorable kidlet, working on our little house, trying to get our butts back in shape, paying off debt, having visitors, staying busy with church callings and growing lots of delicious berries.  Well, J does that last one.  The rest of us just EAT lots of delicious berries.  And enjoy California. (I cannot say enough how much I love living closer to family and having an AWESOME climate).  We’re not globe trotting or anything at the moment…Mostly raising our darling babes (Now I really understand what two under two means) and creating memories.  Which is where this old thing comes in. 

I’ve been thinking back about how Babycakes’ infancy was documented and like most families, #2 has been seriously left out.  If nothing more comes from this blog but beautifully printed yearbooks to sit on our shelves, I would be completely happy.  This is my journal and this is our family’s story. 

So if you’re new, Welcome!  And if you’re old, Welcome Back!  And if it’s just me on this thing…We’re glad you’re here anyways!

xoxo,

The Hastings

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I’m starting where we’re at now, as catching up seems impossible…but I’ll work on past posts before printing our “family yearbook” and will backdate them, just so you know, grandmas and grandpas:).

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Memorial Day…

Babycakes and I got to meet Nani and Papi in King City for a Memorial Day picnic!  J had to work, but it was so nice to be able to meet with family in the middle just for the day. So grateful for the amazing people that have given their all for our country’s benefit so my family can be together with the freedoms we have.  Also, so grateful for my parents and how involved they are with all of their grandkids. 

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Eating in the windy sunshine!

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Nani and Papi took turns showing Amelia the ropes on the playground after we had fun with cheetos, balls and bubbles.  Amelia loved the slide, but kept yelling “DOWWWWN” to get Papi to come down after her!

And….Happy Birthday today to my wonderful Dad!  We sure LOVE you!!!

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Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Slacker….

Wow, it’s amazing how horrible I’ve been at this lately...and by lately I mean for the last year and a half.  Blogs seem to not be so trendy anymore, but I really just want to keep a better record for my family (and make those adorable family yearbooks).  So, since realizing that any child of ours after Babycakes probably won’t have a single written memory or picture if I don’t jump back on the bandwagon, we’re back! I’ve felt like I have to go back to where I left off and get everything….and maybe someday for our own purposes we will…but to avoid being completely overwhelmed by something that’s meant to be fun, I’m starting off now. My last post was that we were still alive…at the time I didn’t know that just around the corner I would feel like that wasn’t exactly a true statement. Here’s what’s been happening:

-We are expecting!  For the first 20 weeks, all day puking + taking care of a toddler meant that we were in almost complete hibernation and nothing too exciting was going on.  But, I’m 32 weeks now and we’re finally out of hibernation over here.  It’s about time!  Although pregnancies are no bueno for the women in my family, we couldn’t be happier about our new addition.  This one was quite the surprise, but we know he (It’s a HE!)  will be a miraculous joy just like our first babycakes. Besides, Jordan can’t stop talking about having another sweet little, tiny baby in the house again.

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                    The Prego Eggo after church……… Daddy and Amelia brought me flowers on an especially sick day

-We’ve been getting settled into our new little place and enjoying the area.  We love the beach, the giant trees, the boardwalk and the aquarium.  I’m going to be honest, there’s just a whole lot more to do here than in Vernal, UT.  (Sorry, vernal! You still hold a special place in my heart;)  We’ve filled our couple months since feeling better with lots of visitors and entertaining, which I like since it gives us an excuse to get out and explore more.  But my all time favorite thing about living here is being so much closer to family and friends….I get to see my family at least once a month and we live by a lot of J’s extended family.Fall 2012 1198Fall 2012 1205

…Boardwalk and Clam Chowder with the Cousins…

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…Beach with Cousin Andrew and Uncle Nic…

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…Monterey Bay Aquarium…

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…Taking the bus and Amtrak to Nani and Papi’s House…

-Church has been keeping us pretty busy, especially Jordan.  He was called as the Young Men’s President like the second week we were here.  Haha.  He really enjoys it though, and we both get to work with a lot of the same kids, as I teach the 16 to 18 year old boys and girls in Sunday School.  Our ward is pretty interesting as it’s half English speaking and half Spanish speaking…but that’s right up our ally and makes me feel quite at home with our past cultural experiences.  Plus, I’m just so glad J’s job allows him to go to church every Sunday.  I hated that he wasn’t able to go half the time at his last job!  Babycakes loves having him there too, and usually can be heard saying “oooh, Dadaaaa!” and pointing at him all through sacrament while he helps the young men bless and pass it.

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…Amelia rocking her first day of Nursery at 15 months…

-One of our favorite things to do is go bug Daddy at work.  Sometimes we get to meet for lunch or an OB appointment, then go with J to his greenhouses, stuff ourselves sick with berries and show Babycakes all the animals on the farm. Then I take her swimming or visit with the extended Stout family there and it’s always a fun filled day!

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…Riding Bugsy and helping Daddy work in our yard…

-Did I mention I’ve been eating a lot of Strawberries?  It’s so nice to be married to the Strawberry Man.  The only thing more fun would be if he had a second job as the Ice Cream Man.  We’ll have to work on that…

-We had a mouse problem at our house since it’s surrounded by a lot of woods and fields, so we got Fritz.  Now, Amelia has a new best friend and we have a very full cat. :)

torturing petting Fritz…

-My mom and I started a little company!  It’s called Blooms & Bliss Floral Design and we’ve been having a lot of fun with it and learning about the business.  My mom and one of her best friends have been designing for years for other people or other floral shops, but never wanted to really be bothered by the business side of things.  But, I love that sort of thing (I’m starting to miss our business development experience we had overseas) and decided we’d go for it.  We bought a nice cooler and have a mini storefront at an antique shop in Lompoc.  I don’t think flowers are a very lucrative business in a bummer economy, but it’s nice to be able to do a hobby and not lose money on it.  I’ll have to post more about it later, but we had a pretty good Mother’s Day and have a few weddings we’re excited about this summer!  If you haven’t checked it out already, go on over to our page at  https://www.facebook.com/BloomsandBliss (there’s also a link at the top of this blog)  and “Like” us!

…Our new business cards I designed.  The background is actually my wedding bouquet my mom made!…

-Little Miss Babycakes is turning into Toddlercakes!  I can’t believe how fast she’s grown.  I’ll have to do another baby in the chair update, but for now let’s just say she’s been learning and growing like a weed (she’s not so round anymore….she’s pretty tall and lanky!) and has quite the spunky attitude.  She runs faster than I can keep up with her, can say 30+ words (when she feels like it), is understanding everything daddy says to her in Spanish (it’s all he speaks to her) and is Mommy’s little terrorist helper at my side for everything I do.  Everybody who’s around her mentions how busy she is…no wonder I’m so tired this pregnancy!  She loves giving Baby Brother kisses and is going to be a great big sister when she finds out whatever that means. ;) 

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And here are a lot of random pictures from the last little while…

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…Stuffing ourselves at Tuacano’s with my parents for my Dad’s 60th!…

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…Music & the Spoken Word in SLC…

Thursday, October 18, 2012

We’re Alive!!! And we Moved!

Hello!  Where did the summer go? Sorry we’ve been gone for so long….

Remember how I said we were selling our house and moving to Nebraska?  Well, we did officially sell our house as of today-ish wahoooo! and we did move, but not to Nebraska.  We moved to Royal Oaks, California for a job that we’re excited about.  Omaha may very well also be in our future, but we’re happy to be back in Cali for now.  We live just a little under 3 hours from my parent’s casa.  Perfection! I haven’t lived less than a two day’s drive (and sometimes a two day flight from Brazil or China) from home since before I left for BYU.

Here’s a little recap of late:

  • Jordan started working at Classic Farms in Watsonville/Salinas area mid September.  He likes it and it comes with getting to live in a little house on a hill, which I like.  More on said little hill house later! Perks of being around his cousins are also a huge plus!
  • I went to Utah with the babycakes and my angel mother to pack up our house.
    • During that trip the following went down-
      • Both my car and my mom’s cars died.  Hers with transmission probs and mine with a mysterious battery issue that took way too many people to solve. 
      • We walked a lot of places, including to local stores to dumpster dive for boxes.  We walked home piled in boxes and looked like Hobos.
      • Had a hugely successful impromptu yard sale, ridding us of a lot of stuff I loved/semi-liked/didn’t need.  Remember my crazy couch? Gone!  My awesome convection oven and stove?  Bon Voyage! It’s amazing how I hang onto things with a death grip until someone gives me money for them.
      • I found sewage backed up in the beautiful new bathroom J put in the basement.  Perfect timing.
      • Spent most of my nights digging/cleaning poop out of said bathroom.
      • Funded the plumber’s holiday bonus by having them clear our sewage line all the way to the street.  The new owners shouldn’t have a problem until the millennium. 
      • Enjoyed a little bit of the garden we planted!
      • Said goodbye to a lot of dear friends…come visit us soon!
      • Jordan and his cousin Josh came and loaded up a moving truck and took all of our stuff back to CA.
      • Was surprised almost daily during the last week by sweet little notes and surprises from my Young Women from church.  I will miss those girlies so much!
      • Got a ticket my last night in town and threatened that my car could be impounded for expired tags.  I honestly had no idea and have barely driven the little car since we got our truck. I DON’T cry in front of cops..and I did.
      • Drove to St. George where I hit road block after road block to get the car re-registered/inspected and back to California…Columbus Day, really?  I just wanted to get the heck out of the state and felt like it had something against me!  So I ditched the car and flew home from there with the babycakes.
  • We moved our stuff into our new little house! Happy day!
  • I got to nest for two days…
  • …Then, two discs decided to completely go out in my back and I was down for the count.  After hardly being able to walk and not being able to pick up Amelia-Jayne at all, I went to the Doc and he’s fixing me all up.  Heavenly Father has funny ways of getting us to slow down when we won’t.

That’s where we are now!  I’m glad the last three weeks in particular are over and we are done with months of our limbo.  And now, thanks to Jordan’s help, my chiropractor and Nani and Papi taking the babycakes (again, soooo nice to be close to family) I am on the road back to a house of sanity!  And seeing that I’m pretty much useless doing anything else right now, I can finally update this thing. Thanks for bearing with me on this somewhat downer of a post…happier things to follow as well as pics when I can upload them!

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Our House…

is a very, very, very fine house.
With two cats in the yard,
Life used to be so hard.
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you. La la la la la!

vernal house

We’re moving!!!!  We made it to a whole year in one place and decided we needed to move again.  Haha…Just Kidding.  We were blessed with a really good job opportunity in Omaha, Nebraska and knew it was time to finish off some of our projects and list this baby.

Here she is in a sweet virtual tour….

http://www.pixeet.com/pano/V67E5MGD

and this is her listing:

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/330-W-250-S_Vernal_UT_84078_M27585-62100

I have to say I did not like my house when we moved in.  It was old (ala 1947), had weeds for landscaping, I had barely seen it before we bought it (in fact I hadn’t seen it at all before we made an offer) and it had been sitting empty after a foreclosure for two years. However, I was sold when Jordan told me that we were a block south of the temple and you could see it from my kitchen window.  Done.  Then my awesome husband got a hold of it, fixed it right up and we added a baby, some flowers and a whole lotta love.  Now it’s our bright cheerful spot and I’m in love with our first little Bethlehem.   

Here are some of the things we’ve done:

  • Jordan took a load bearing wall out that separated two rooms without a common hallway.  We retextured, painted and had carpet put in and now those two awkward rooms are a second family room!
  • New paint throughout 90% of the home.
  • Lots of new carpet
  • J put in a second bathroom
  • Improved old drywall in many rooms
  • New porch banister
  • Veggie Garden!
  • Dug a well
  • Revived the grass, planted a little bit of new sod, and put in new flower beds (my project of choice)
  • Furnishing and decorating it since we moved in with one bed and one table to our names
  • Plus all the other little miscellaneous items that come with fixing up a fixer upper

There’s things we would have liked to do had we lived there longer, but someone else can enjoy doing a couple things just how they want to. So, take a looksie and let us know if you know of anyone looking for a cute little house in a great neighborhood!

Friday, August 10, 2012

11 Months!

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With all of the craziness going on in our lives (job changes, house remodeling, crazy callings and interstate moving)  I hadn’t even thought about her little monthly photo shoot until a couple of hours before we left for our California road trip!  Ahhhh!  So, with every clean item of clothing packed, a 5 minute glam-baby shoot in her favorite pink fur coat sounded pretty dang good.

-Babycakes is a little snuggle bug!  We always thought she was a cuddle baby- just too busy to stop and cuddle for longer than a half second.  I didn’t know this until last month, but every time J has picked her up from her crib he’s been teaching her how to give the best hugs.  She even pats your back and makes little “hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm” sighs into your shoulder.  It’s pretty much the best thing to wake up to every morning.  Go J Daddy!

-She’s conquered going up and down stairs now.

-She loves the Olympics and claps right on queue.

-Amelia-Jayne has discovered the bathroom.  Fishing in the porcelain throne and going through rolls of TP in seconds is a full time job for her.

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-J’s only been speaking to her in Spanish this summer, since we want her to grow up with both languages.  She’s been responding to both languages, but my favorite is when her cousin, Andrew, goes around saying “mija, mija, come here!”

-She chews with 5 teeth now!

-She’s constantly “singing.”

-Still no stranger danger with this girl!  She loves everybody who catches her eye.  She might shrug into us and pretend to be shy for 3 seconds, then completely warms up and laughs at every one.

-Babycakes has a signature move- her “Dr. Evil” finger in the mouth move.  She whips it out when she meets people or gets caught doing something she’s not supposed to be.

-Although she’s been able to get off the couch and chairs for months, if we tell her to “stay here”- she’ll stay!  It’s been quite the little miracle trick, especially this month.

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Can’t believe she’s turning one this month! 

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

H-Town Reunions

 

Okay, so this is totally slacker of me, but I’ve got to catch up somehow…so, I’m combining the many pics from three Hastings/Stout reunions this past year in one. 

#1) The first one was WAY back in February when J’s brother, Taylor, came back from his Marine deployment.  It was fun and Jordan and I sponsored a game night where we celebrated every holiday that Taylor missed while he was gone for fun.  We called it “Around the Year in 80 Seconds.” We celebrated the New Year with a “ball drop,”  V-day with a Photo Booth of Love, pinching contests, Easter egg hunts, fireworks, trick-or-treating and many more.

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Taylor got to meet all of the newbie kids (including his own sweet girl), Amelia loved her uncles and balloons, she also met all the cows, piggies and chickens, and Jordan made Beef Jerky with his cousin.

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#2) The second little reunion with all the sibs was to help build a beautiful new deck for Roma Ann.  It so happened that most of the family was in H-town to celebrate Aunt Angelyn’s 80th Birthday, so it was perfect timing. 

We had fun with those things plus went on a date to Brian Reagan, got super sick, had pictures taken by the amazing Susie, spent some time at the splash pad and showed off Amelia’s aerial tricks…

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(photo: adelaide photography)

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#3)  The most recent Hurricane trip was for the giant Stout reunion with around 400 relatives there.  It was in honor of J’s deceased Grandmother’s 100th birthday.  It was a blast with tons of gabbing, food, fun and the best part…a MUD RUN!

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