Tasty!!!!

Yum! I wish I could get this messy when I eat....

I.LOVE.THIS.GIRL!!!!!!

I feel like I need to post about 10 more posts before I am caught up on all the fun we had over the summer. Here are some funny pictures of Hadley from our friend's wedding in late August. She makes us laugh! I just had her 11 month appointment and she is 16 lbs and 29" long. She is long and skinny and just so much fun! Look at those legs that just go on for miles! Work it, Hadley!

Oh Yeah!

We went to Yosemite FOREVER AGO! In June, to be exact. But because we've been pretty busy, I forgot to blog about it! We had a fun time and we even camped for two nights. This is a big deal for me (Marielle) because I'm not really the "camping type" of person. I agreed to camp for two nights only because I knew that their would be a real bathroom with a real toilet and that we didn't have to hike to get to our campsite. That's my kind of camping, if you ask me!
It was gorgeous there and I was so happy I brought my lovely camera with me. We had a great time!





Hadley wasn't too sure how she felt about camping.

Family Photos

I am in love with Rebekah Westover's photography. I want to be as talented as she is! When we were in Utah a couple of weeks ago, I had her take our family pictures. Check them out here!

Yo yo yo

So we have been mega busy. Our house is currently torn apart- in this past week we have had scaffolding put up around the side and back of our house, the whole exterior painted, and the deck totally torn apart. We have about 15 dudes coming in and out of our house all day long. It's madness!

We are going to Utah next week so I can shoot a wedding in the Salt Lake City temple and I'm super excited! We are also getting our family pictures taken when we are there so I will have to post those pictures when we get them.

In other news, Hadley has 4 teeth, is a crawling maniac, and loves to babble. Today she started saying da da. She also loves saying "MOOOO!" Like a cow. She just recently started giving me (open mouth) kisses on my chin. This girl is the cutest and we love her to death.

I've been a slacker lately and don't have any recent recent pics of hadley but here is one that I found from when she was just a couple of months old. I love this picture!

Amazing.

I heard that the Dale Chihuly exhibit was coming to the DeYoung Museum and I was SOOOO excited! If you ever have the chance to visit the DeYoung, it is so worth it. It is a gorgeous place to be and it always has awesome exhibits. The Chihuly exhibit goes until late September and I think everyone should go see it. It is amazing that someone has that much talent! Check out my pictures- I had a hard time choosing which ones to post because I took so many. Hadley loved going- she was laughing and smiling the whole time.

Taneil made me do it.

I usually don't do these things, but my friend Taneil tagged me and I will do anything for her. I know this is off topic but why haven't I heard of a Wife tag? Don't any men want to brag about their ladies?

Anyway, here is more information about Sam that you probably want to know.

1. What is his name?
Samuel David Hayes but we all call him Sam

2. Who eats more?
Sam eats more food and I eat more candy

3. Who said I love you first?
Sam

4. Who is taller?
Sam

5. Who is smarter?
What kind of question is this? Who is smarter? At what? Sam is smarter than me with math and science but I know that I know more about grammar, literature and boring stuff like that. This question sucks!

6. Who is more sensitive?
I am

7. Who does the laundry?
I do.

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
Sam

9. Who pays the bills?
Uh Wells Fargo Bill Pay!

10. Who cooks more?
Hmmm...if anyone knows me, you know that cooking is not my thing right now. We live way too close to so many good restaurants so I would have to say that House of Curries, Cactus Taqueria and the Emeryville Public market do most of the cooking. That's the way I like it!

11. Who is more stubborn?
Well, Sam is a Taurus and I'm a Leo so you can pick the answer

12. Who is the first to admit that they are wrong?
Me. Not just with Sam but with everyone. It drives me and Sam crazy!

13. Who has more siblings?
We both have 3.

14. Who wears the pants in the family?
This has become a recent phenomenon to me and Sam. We really think that I am one of the only women that we know where I honestly don't wear the pants. Do you know any other girls who don't? I'd be interested to know who they are and to meet them and give them a high five.

15. What do you like to do together?
Going to art exhibits, going to the aquarium, eating at yummy restaurants, traveling to new places, finding cool new music to rock out to, walking around on Telegraph street in Berkeley, watching movies, going to the A's games and playing with Hadley and Brody.

16. Who eats more sweets?
Me.

17. Guilty pleasures?
None that I can think of. Sam really likes nachos right now so that will be my answer

18. How did you meet?
Short version of the story- Sam's cousin and my dad were mission companions in Australia 30 years ago and set us up. We met for the first time in the Reno Airport, I wore green snakeskin pants and it was a done deal.

19. Who proposed?
Sam. Obviously.

20. What is his best features?
Sam has an amazing smile. It pays when your dad is a dentist!

21. What is his greatest qualities?
Sam is crazy. He is the most intense person I know and he won't sleep until he accomplishes the things that he wants to do in life. Because of this, he has accomplished a lot more than a lot of people his age. If he wants something, he will find every way possible to make it work out so he can have and enjoy it. He is such a perservering person and I love that about him. I also love that he has the desire to constantly learn about new things. He is always pursuing new activities or hobbies that he wants to get involved in and I love that he is constantly trying new things. He is talented at so many things but really humble about them. Sam is the only guy I have ever known who I can totally be myself around. He is a good example to me. Sam is a great husband and the best father ever. And he understands my need to buy a new pair of shoes every other week and he's okay with it. He is a good person and has a great personality that I just love. Basically, Sam is the bomb.com

I tag Brittney, Jen, Amber, Erin and Summer. I know you all read my blog so you'd better do it!

Hadley.

Hadley went swimming last week for the first time and totally loved it. She would kick her legs furiously and grunt and kept on trying to stick her face in the water. I am happy that she likes being in the water so much! Here are some pictures of her in all her glory!

First Ball Game

We had fun at Hadley's first ball game. The A's lost, but it was a close game and was fun for everyone. Hadley loved touching the hair on our neighbor's arm, chewing on the baseball glove, and trying to grab our french fries and corn dog. Here are some pics:

The Sam Version of the Fire

I get a frantic call from Marielle saying "a house is on fire, our house is going to burn, call 911".

Speed home at approximately 120mph. A cop starts following me with lights, and I ignore him.

Show up at our street, and marielle is in the car with Hadley, so I run like the guy from Terminator 2 to my house.

Start grabbing the 1 thing I know isn't insured, all of my art! Fill up both cars with framed art and tubes.

Cops block the street at this point so I can't get in at all. About 100 firefighters are right below my house.

I sneak past the cops so I can grab my passports, birth certificates, change into comfortable clothes, and by request grab marielle's $40 gary fong lightsphere for her camera (i don't really get it, but whatever).

This is what I see from my window:




A firefighter is in my smoke filled living room telling me I need to chop down the tree behind my house. I try to have a conversation with him, but everything was happening too fast to say anything meaningful like "thanks for stomping mud through my living room to put out the deck that caught on fire." No really, I am glad he was there.

Back with Marielle a few blocks away, a fire starts a from an ember between two houses. I grab a hose in an effort to extinguish it and then I notice a helicopter above my head. It is too late and I get dumped on with dirty lake water.

About four hours later, everything is over and we go in to inspect the damage. Burnt Decks, broken windows, mud tracked throughout the house. This is the picture in the news (we are the light grey one with the huge flame on the right):

FIRE!!!!!

Here is the scariest story of my life thus far....

I was doing laundry and when I came upstairs, I smelled smoke. I went and looked out the back door and saw a fire that had started at the base of the hill behind our house. I quickly grabbed Hadley, Brody, our laptop and my camera gear and got the heck out of the house! After I loaded everything into the car, I ran back inside (I was in no way calm, collected or composed) and I looked out the deck and the whole hill behind our house was totally in a huge blaze. So I got the heck out, called Sam to tell him that our house was probably going to burn down and cried like a huge, big baby.

So we spent all day today stuck in our car down the street from our house, with ashes falling from the sky, watching the helecopters dump water on the fire, wondering what was happening. We weren't allowed to go down the street or into our houses so when it came time to feed Hadley, I had to drive to the store and buy all new food for her. We seriously sat in the car all day long waiting for them to finish fighting the fire. IT SUCKED!!!! There were probably about 20 fire trucks in our neighborhood for the day. We just sat in our cars and waited to hear what had happened.

This is the report...

Our house was the only one on the street that actually caught fire. Our deck caught fire and thankfully the firemen were able to put it out before the rest of the house caught on fire. You can actually check out the video of our deck on fire here. The white house on the right is ours.
Pretty scary stuff!

So, here is the damage:

* The firemen tromped through our house, leaving our white carpets completley black with soot, mud and whatever else was on their shoes. Did I mention that our carpet used to be white? They have to be replaced because of the firemen, and also because of the smokey smell stuck inside the carpet. No bueno!

* A few windows in our house crakced from the heat of the fire

* Our deck needs to be replaced. Our BBQ grill (with a propane tank) was on the deck during the fire. I am so grateful that it didn't catch fire because our house probably would have exploded.

* A smoke stench that is in all of our clothes, drapes, and throughout the whole house. We had to stay at a hotel the night of the fire because we couldn't stand to even be in our house.

I am so grateful that our whole house didn't burn to the ground. Let me tell you, that was the scariest time of my life, running through my house thinking that I might not have a home later that day.

We know that the Lord was really watching out for us. Having to replace a few windows and carpet and a deck really isn't a big deal. I am just grateful that we were watched over and that our house is still standing!

Sam took a bunch of photos with his phone, we will have to post them later for all to see.

Blah blah blah

Nothing really exciting to post. But I decided that something is better than nothing. So here is a kinda boring post...

I was just going through our pictures and found this one (taken with Sam's iPhone) from our flight home from Vegas. Hadley just fell right asleep on my lap and didn't wake up the whole flight!

We went camping last week with some friends (pictures to follow) and we are heading off to see Yosemite for a couple of days. Who knew I was such an outdoors woman? I'm really not at all but Sam bought some camping gear for really cheap at the REI sale so now we have to go camping a couple of times to make it worth it. We have done so much since Sam finished his MBA. It's really nice to have him around and I feel like we've done a ton of stuff since he's been done.

I don't know how many of you read my photography blog, but I am offering really cheap family sessions in September from September 8th-12th for only $60. So, spread the word and help a sister out! Seriously, if you know someone who needs some family pictures/baby pictures/just because pictures, send them my way!

This is the end of my semi-boring update. I hope everyone is doing well!

Fun Times

We just got back from spending a few days in St.George with Sam's parents. We had a great time and celebrated Sam's Birthday, visited Fish Lake, the Grand Canyon, Bryce National Park and Las Vegas. My favorite part was seeing the Cirque de Soleil show, LOVE. If you are ever in Vegas, you have to see it! It was the typical desert climate - 109 degrees in Vegas. We had a great time with Sam's parents and Hadley's first tooth started coming in while we were on our trip. She also said, "I love you" to Joan. It was pretty funny.
I spent some time taking some awesome pictures of the St. George Temple and some other sights around St. George. Check out my pictures HERE.
Anyway, here are pictures from our fabulous trip! Thanks, Phil and Joan for the wonderful time!


Bryce Canyon

The Grand Canyon is beautiful



We went on an awesome hike in the blazing heat.


Us at the fabulous Cafe Diablo in Torrey, Utah

Hadley putting out the vibe at the Fish Lake Cabin

It's been awhile..

I have been pretty busy lately with weddings, working, hanging out with Sam since he's now done with school, etc. so I've neglected the blog. We have been doing so much lately that it's hard to blog everything we've been doing!
Anyway, my parents and sister Morgan came to town last weekend and we had a great time with them. It is so fun to see them with Hadley- the all just love her so much! Here are some pictures of our fun times together. We had the greatest time hanging out, going on a hike and just being together.
I did a very quick shoot of my parents for their 25th Anniversary. It's so cute to see how much they still love each other. You can check out their pictures here.



Hadley loves her Grandpa!


Hadley and Morgan




My parents bought this insanely adorable dress for Hadley. So cute!




On a side note, if any of you guys have friends/family members getting married, please send them my way for their photography! If you have a friend who books their wedding through me, I'll give you $100 and if your friends book a family session through me, I'll buy you lunch (I'm not kidding!) I'm totally wiling to travel. Sorry for the shameless self-promotion, but hey, it's my blog and I hope to get my name out there more and because you guys are my friends, you can all help me! If you want to check out my most recent work, see my photo blog at http://mariellehayes.blogspot.com or my website at www.mariellehayes.com

Exciting!

A couple of quick, exciting things....

#1: Hadley said her first word on Saturday morning. She was laying in bed and she said, "Hi!" It was pretty cute. I can't wait until she starts talking all the time!

#2: This is long overdue, but Sam finished his MBA last month. I am seriously so proud of him. He has worked full time while going to school at nights. He is such a hard worker and I'm proud of this accomplishment of his. I'm really excited that now I can hang out with him when he is done with work!

That's all for now!

Summertime Weather

The weather was amazing over the weekend...blue skies, 83 degrees and gorgeous! I wanted to take Hadley swimming but because we don't have a pool, I opted for a photo shoot instead.
I've started making the HUGE flowers that go on her headbands. I'm basically addicted because I think they are so cute!