What the Arizona Hays' have been up to lately...

So here's what we've been up to lately:

Thanks to a couple of people we know we (Kirk, Holden & I) were able to see President Obama speak at the commencement at ASU. Here's airforce one flying over the stadium prior to the event.











Our good friend Jennifer Adair received her Doctorate degree at commencement and was pleasantly surprised to discover that President Obama was shaking all the doctoral students hands upon receipt of their degrees. Very cool - so we captured this photo of Jenn getting her degree while shaking his hand.























Brennan has been wrestling again this year and enjoying it - we were able to attend his district finals and he took second place in his division! We are very proud of him!







































We are STILL working on the project in the backyard, we had really hoped to be finished by now. There have been delays with the City and delays with some of the people working on the project. It is looking really great back there though. We re-filled the pool and had the whole thing cleaned - in this photo Holden is filling it back up - someone has to keep the sides of the pool wet the entire time it is filling to make sure the plaster stays wet so it will not crack.

The other photo shows Jordan enjoying the backyard with a book. The area where she is sitting will eventually have a mesh covering so she won't be able to sit on this ledge for long.







































Today is Brennan's 14th Birthday - we celebrated by taking him to eat at one of his favorite restaurants. Later in the day I made cupcakes for him with his favorite frosting. He's such a great kid. He spent the last day catching up his Duty to God reading in the Book of Mormon - a lot of kids would probably have complained about that task, but he said he has been learning a lot and found it very interesting once he got into Mosiah. We adore him. Happy Birthday Brennan!!!!

It was wonderful to see Lara and Justin with Jocelyn. Jocelyn slept the whole time. Which was amzing since she was passed all around. It was great to see everyone, it had been a long time since I have seen most of the Hays family.

Stephanies oldest girl.

Thr shower was at Stephanie's house. I didn't realize that her house was for sale until we drove up and saw the sign. It's a great neighborhood, great house, and I love her back yard. Hopefully, they will get an offer this summer.

Easter

This year Matt and Ashley took half of the Easter candy downstairs and hid it for Jessica and Michael. While Jessica and Michael hid half the candy upstairs for Matt and Ashley. I think they had more fun hiding then finding the candy.

Matt showing that they were done hiding candy.

Ashley searching everywhere for candy.

At Grandmpa Watterson's.

More hiding places.

Hiding candy.

The rest of the pictures are at Grandma Wattersons

Nathan WINS! They played a sock game. Where each player put one big sock on. The object was to be the last one with a sock on.

Angie with her baby.

Monika

I wanted to wish Mom, Lezlee, Jen, Tammy,and Nicole a Happy Mother's Day. I hope you have had a great day. The kids and Eric took me shopping yesterday for my present. I got 6 folding wood chairs for our deck. I love being able to sit out thare and see our beautiful view. This moring Eric and Matt made me eggs benedict, my favorite. Eric has done this for years, except last year. He was planning on it, but our house was just going on the market that weekend and I thought it would smell like eggs for the open house. So as I ate my favorite breakfast I was so thankful to be in our new home, and not to be moving this summer. I am also so thankful for Eric. He has been such a wonderful support to me, especially the last three years. My opperation went extreemly well. I am having very little pain, much less than before the surgery.
Monika

PLANTS!!!

This week our project focused on plants. Last Saturday Lezlee and I spent the morning with the landscape architect picking out plants. He had put a few in the yard before but a lot more arrived today. I'm very excited about the plants. We picked ones that bloom at different times of the years so there is always something happening. We also picked a lot of really fragrant plants so the back yard smells wonderful. Finally, we used lots of colors to play off the bright walls and the metal structure.

So here is what our backyard and plants look like today.



This is an overview of the backyard. On the left you can see our new lemon tree, which is already producing fruit. This also gives you an idea of how big the herb "meadow" is is.



Aren't these little plants great. They are a bizarre succulent that look like they come from Iceland. They're ground cover that will spread along the base of the bigger plants.



These yellow flowers were picked to compliment the purple walls. They'll grow up the side of the wall and spread across them. They'll be offset by white roses.



This one bougainvillea will set of the yellow flowers.


These will be covered with blue flowers most of the winter.


One of the aloes.



Rosemary that smells delicious!



These will also be ground cover and full of yellow flowers.


This is the side of the yard where we've made a dog run. It will be the coolest part of the yard because its right under a great big pine tree.






Jordan and our new pomegranate tree.

In other news, Holden learned to weld this week. He's working with Aaron--the metal artist--so he can have a break from painting. He loves doing that kind of stuff. Today he learned to use the plasma cutter. Here he is with one of the gates he made. This is the big 10' gate that will lead into the BBQ area. It was designed to look like a stylized ocotillo--a thorny woody desert plant that our street is named after. The ocotillo motif will also be used on other gates. His girlfriend Noelle was accepted into nursing school this week and she'll start in the fall. These week we had a friend of mine over for dinner whose daughter served in the Bulgaria mission. She brought three Bulgarian dishes--all very good.




Brennan is turning into quite a wrestler and is going camping tonight with the scouts. Hopefully by the end of the summer he'll have almost all his merit badges done.

Jordan had strep throat but at least it wasn't swine flu.

Lezlee finished her abnormal psychology class and is waiting for her next class to start.

I finished painting the Dying Gaul and it sold almost as soon as it hit the gallery. I also started another painting of a friend's daughter leaning against a purple wall. I'm pretty happy with it so far.

Now Lezlee and I are going on a double date with Holden and Noelle--dinner and then the new Star Trek movie. The key to having your kids want to do things with you? Pay.