Life at Edge

As many of you may know I am a professional car nut and have been working at Edge Products in Ogden, Utah. Occasionally I will travel to truck shows and this year I was able to go to a 4 Wheel Parts Truck and Jeep show in Puyallup, Washington. I had a great time with the reps from R and R marketing, and the inside sales rep from Revtech. During my stay there I was able to find some new customers and plant some seeds for those who were looking to buy performance products for their trucks in the future. I was surprised at the amount of people that wanted to buy our products. Last week I became the new Inside Sales Rep for my company and I am very excited about helping potential customers find the product that best suits their needs. I will miss working with my friends in the Technical Support department but think that this will be a good move in the right direction for me. If you would like to learn more about our products go to http://www.edgeproducts.com/.

It's been a long time...sorry!

Well...it's been a while since we found out we are having a little girl. We have been to register and it made it seem even more real. I think Mark is getting more excited that it is a girl!

On the day that we found out we were having a girl, my sister had her baby girl. Lucy Jean Warner had to stay in the NICU for almost one month with an over active pancreas and trouble swallowing. She was born at 9 lbs. 9 oz. Lucy got to come home on April 11th. The day we were celebrating my birthday. Jon and Katie brought her over or about an hour. What a perfect gift...it was nice to be able to hold her without her feeding tube.

Mark and I were able to go see Wicked on my birthday. That was also a nice present. It was just as good as when I drove to Denver with some friends to see it. I'm glad Mark was able to experience it with me. We had been given some gift cards to The Outback Steakhouse, so that is where we went for dinner before the show. I had a nice birthday this year. I was also given a gift card from the ladies I work with to buy some maternity clothes. What a blessing that was.

I have gotten bigger since we last posted as well. This picture is when I am about 27 weeks along. I can't believe how fast it seems to be going. I am going to be 30 weeks this week. I am feeling the baby move more and Mark has even been able to feel her some. She has a pretty good kick.

The bookcase in the background was refinished by my dad. It was a bookcase he made a long, long time ago. They were going to get rid of it and decided to see if I would like it. I jumped at the chance, since I have so many books. I think I could probably fill up three bookcases this size. Thanks mom and dad, it looks great.

I have also been busy being crafty. I embroidered a wall hanging for Mark's mom for Mother's Day, and one for Lucy. Those both had to be finished up this week. Mark helped me paint the frames. I think they turned out very nice.

For a Relief Society enrichment activity I started making an apron which I will have to finish once school is out...14 days and counting! This is a picture of The Very Hungry Caterpillar quilt that my mom is going to help me make for our baby. I think it is super cute and it is one of my favorite Eric Carle books. I hope I can make it look half way decent. I'm not so good at using a sewing machine.

This last picture is from Friday night. Katie, Jon and Lucy drove to Denver early Saturday morning. Jon will be working in Denver and my sister is gone. I sure will miss them...good thing we have phones. Mark is great, he let me spend the night just being with my sister. I probably held Lucy for a good hour and a half. Can't wait till we can go and visit them, but it will probably have to wait until our baby comes. We don't want to take any chances.

I will try to be better about posting. School is almost out and I might have a little bit more time then (for a few months anyway.) I can't believe I have been teaching for six years. It's been a good journey and I have learned so much. Hopefully some of what I have learned will help me be a good mom.

Barbies or Hot Wheels

In our last post we asked many of you whether our first child would be a girl or a boy. The time has arrived and we now know whether our child is going to play with Barbies or Hot Wheels, or both. I was secretly hoping that it was going to be a boy and Jana was hoping for a girl. A couple weeks ago I had a feeling that it was going to be a girl and ever since then I have thought that it was going to be a girl. I bet you are all itching to find out what we found out. Our first child will be playing with Hot Wheels, even though she is a girl!

Boy or Girl?

This week we were able to inform both sets of our grandparents that we are expecting a new addition to the Hayward family. Now that we have told them we can publicy make it known that we are pregnant and will be having a baby this Summer. We found out that we were pregnant around Thanksgiving and it was confirmed around Christmastime when we had our first appointment with the doctor. We were very excited to hear the heartbeat for the first time and look forward to having more of these experience as the baby matures. We do not know whether it will be a boy or a girl yet but will know within the next couple of months and will definately keep you posted. Jana wants it to be a girl because she says that there are so many cute things to dress girls up in and she thinks that girls are cuter. She is also the oldest child in her family and thinks that it would be neat to share that common experience with her first child. I want it to be boy so that I can have male bonding moments and wear matching sweater vests to church. Honestly we will both be pleased with either one and are hoping that it will be a healthy baby. What do you think that it will be?

Cars!!!

Those of you that know me, know that I have a passion for cars. I have loved cars ever since I was little and will probaby continue this passion throughout the rest of my life. One of my youngest nephews also shares this interest and I get a little giddy when he decides to play with cars or watch the movie Cars. I would have to officially say that the creators of the movie Cars are great people for making a movie that I could get into and kept my attention for more than an hour. I have never been diagnosed with ADD but claim that I have a special condition called "Movie ADD," because of my inability to sit through a whole movie without falling asleep or getting bored.

As I have watched this movie I have noticed two things that stand out quite a bit, cars and Route 66. For our honeymoon, Jana and I were able to travel on part of Route 66 and see some scenery that we think was motivation for some of the scenes and characters in the movie Cars. After driving through this town and seeing these cars we had to purchase the movie Cars soon after our arrival in Pinetop, AZ. We thought it would cool if we could share these pictures with our family and friends. We hope you enjoy them.

Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ, inspiration for the Cozy Cone Motel

Here are a few Cars character look-alikes.

From left to right: Hudson Hornet, Tow Mater and Ramone.

Feel free to check out the website listed below to see if you notice the similarities that we saw:

http://www.pixar.com/featurefilms/cars/pop4.html4.html.

A Very Merry Christmas

This was our first Christmas together and it has been filled with many great memories. It was filled with old traditions and possibly some new traditions.

Jana's family has a Christmas Eve tradition of eating pizza by candlelight so we went over there for dinner and to sing some traditional Christmas songs around the piano. After visiting with her family we ventured over to spend some time with my parents and watch " The Christmas shoes". It was a very good movie and I tried to be a helpful husband by wiping away her tears but I guess that I was smearing them across her face. I was starting to get a little teary eyed but I think that I would have to attribute that to the fact that I have sinuses. The truth is I was actually a little emotional because the show was very sad.

Christmas came and went very quickly but it was filled with many great memories of those we love the most, our family. Our main present for each other were these coats that we had found at Cabelas. My coat had arrived at the store but Jana's was on a backorder so I inquired with one of the associates that was ringing me up at the Sports Authority. She called one of their other stores and they actually had the coat that we wanted in stock so we bought it there instead. In the morning we went to Jana's parents and enjoyed a delicious brunch after we had finished unwrapping our presents. We then ventured over to my parents and enjoyed spending time with them even though the power had gone out at their house. It truly has been a Christmas that will be remembered for a very long time and it was nice to be able to spend it with our family.

We hope that all of you have had an enjoyable holiday and remember what Christmas means to you. Whether it is a special time of the year that is spent with family, or the birth of our beloved Savior. May you all enjoy the wonderful holiday season.

December Joys!

Sorry it has been so long since we have had an entry. Life has been busy. Since the last time we wrote Mark and I went to Arizona with his parents to be with his grandparents for Thanksgiving. It was nice to be somewhere warm. While down in Arizona we went to the Arizona Auto Show, which has become a traditional event for him whenever he visits his grandparents for Thanksgiving. We were also able to go and visit my cousin Julie to see her new house. It was nice to be able to see her and all of the Richards family.

The next cool thing that happened is that my brother came home from serving in the Macon, Georgia Mission. This picture you see is of me and him at my school. He came to see me since I didn't get to go to the airport. I was surprised to see him there, but it was a great surprise! When I introduced my parents and Charles to my class, the kids were completely silent. That ended when my family left...they were quickly back to their chattiness. Later that night Mark was able to meet Charles face to face because Charles was in Georgia when we were married in August.

We have also been spending some time with Jason, Shelli and their adorable baby Emzli, born on October 25th. I think that she is so cute. It is lots of fun to be able to have a new little baby in the family. This picture is from my mom and Jon's combined birthday celebrations. November and so far in December we have had lots of family time, which has been very nice.

It has taken us awhile, but we finally have a Christmas tree up and decorated! My co-worker gave us her old tree, and we gladly accepted. It is just the right size for our little apartment. I think it looks pretty cute. Mark helped decorate the tree, and he also sprayed our star so it would match the rest of the tree. We couldn't find a tree topper that we liked. Mark then found one that we both liked, but it was the wrong color. While I was at my parent's house on Saturday spraying my student's Christmas Ornaments green, Mark sprayed our star sliver. It looks very nice. I also took some time last week to put up all of my Nativity sets. I have 11 different sets, and I am working on embroidering one more. I think our place looks very nice. I also got out all my Christmas dishes. It has been fun eating on something new. Here are some pictures of the tree, the star and some of the Nativities.

Mark and I are looking forward to the time we get to spend together in the next few weeks. I only have 5 days left until my much needed Christmas break begins, and Mark also gets some time off from work. We will continue to enjoy the many fun time with our families this holiday season. If you would like to enjoy some nice reading, click on the Christmas Advent button on the right side of our blog. We have enjoyed reading a new entry everyday, feeling the spirit and being uplifted each time. Enjoy the holidays and the time you have to spend with your families!