It's Christmas Time.

#sharethegift

We hope this Christmas season you take the time to about our Savior. 

He is the Gift.  

Brady's wedding!

Brady and Karli got married this last weekend! Thank you to the Duffin's who let us stay the night!

 I totally get the whole " grass is greener" syndrome when I am around all these fun people! It gets so difficult to go back to Idaho in general. We love them all so much! Above is my mom, and Lisa. I love these two so much!

Here is Walker and I waiting for them to come out to see everyone! This kid.... I wish I lived four miles away from him, so I could go surfing with him, watch his rugby games, and hang out with him! But seriously,  I miss him ALL THE TIME.

Another part of the whole the grass is greener thing, is being able to see people who I love completely. People who without, my life wouldn't be as cool as it is.  Life is too short to not appreciate the relationships we have with those closest to us! 

Kade and I! Wahoo for being inside another temple together!

When they did come out it was well worth the wait! So happy for them! 

I offered to do the flowers awhile back, and they turned out great! Lovely bride! 

cake flowers... So exciting, I know, you can hardly handle it over there. Haha. 

 With Laina and Tim in CA( I might add, living out one dream I have had since childhood, living in the bay area)  it was great to spend a little time with her!  Here we are again.. during the pictures! Do not believe the sky... it was NOT warm at all. In fact it was super cold! Everyone was swapping for jackets as soon as pictures were over!

The rest of the weekend was well spent enjoying Father's day and family time! My mom brought up a ton of art work from home; we shopped and hung a few items, its starting to look more like a home up there! 

Meet Nora! My youngest cousin, the age difference between us is 23 years and a month! It was so fun to see her and her sister Mary! So cute! 

We went for a little walk on Sunday and well I seriously could have cried. I miss these guys so much. They are turning into little men, it is flying by, and I missing all of it. I know, sentimental older sister nonsense, spilling out over here, but its the truth. I feel like I missed a lot! Just hope they know I love them!

So now you know, why Rexburg just doesn't even compare! and I think the grass is greener everywhere else ( let's be honest because it is legitimately greener everywhere else) ~ Until next time! 

9073 Pageviews~

So today, during my usual round of blogging.
I noticed on my home page that our little tiny blog has
9073 pageviews.....

I thought...
since when is what we do that interesting?

so I got curious and started hitting all the "breakdown buttons"..... Here are a few things.

• The largest source of views come from people google searching, "Mormon Temple's" and since I have posted plenty of pictures of those it is a source of huge traffic that I am willingly to let anymous readers read, its like the Bailey family Missionary work. I was blown away with how many google searches lead to them right to our we believe tab. Right on people keep on coming! The church is true and if you have questions, ask.

• If you don't have a tab make one, lets use this social dairy network thing we have got going on to spread the gospel. Let me know when you have done it and leave a link! I would love to see your pages!

• So to all you people reading and not following, nice to know you are there! Suddenly, I am very self conscience about what goes up here since its our lives and I can't know who you are if you don't follow the blog.... So follow subscribe or stop reading! Thanks, for understanding that this our Life. Not a source of entertainment.

until then,
Hayley

February...

What the heck happened to February!? Seriously that flew by so fast... It can't be over!

• Wait! before January ends, We saw George Strait in Concert, on his last ever tour. AMAZING!!! Can now mark that off my bucket list!
• We went to CA, the second weekend in February for Elder Sipi (because the word Sheppard doesn't exist in Tongan. It means Little lamb). We flew in Friday night late, into Long Beach. Of course my Daddy picked us up and my grand parents came with him. Which was awesome because I got to give their Christmas present finally.( they have a real ruff life living in Hawaii for a semester teaching at BYU Hawaii). Saturday was such a blur and went by like a rocket. We took family pictures, and Connor had a big get together that night, so fun to see family and friends. Elder Sipi spoke in church the next day and did a great job. We flew home three hours later. * side note the new terminal at long beach... fantastic throw back, best one I have ever seen the food is great as well. It hurts every time I leave the glorious sunshine. I will admit I teared up a bit. I am not great with Change.... hence how long it took Kade and I to get married.. But we left behind the green and sunny CA.

• My parents flew in that Tuesday night with all the boys and Wednesday we dropped Connor off at the MTC. 

• This same week, my Family stayed in town for Presidents weekend. Doug came to see us and on Saturday Kade took all of our guests out riding, while my mom and I shopped. So much fun to spend time with her, I miss her a lot. Other than my girlfriends who are all in school I don't have too many friends up here so it makes a huge difference when she is here. Kade loved taking the boys out riding we even drove back and forth to Midway 3 times, 45 min. drive one way just to spend more time with them. We spent sunday together, they finally got to eat their steaks! So Delicious! They went home Monday.

• The next week or so flew by trying to get caught up on life and callings. Kade is teaching Elder's Quorum and I am the Visiting Teaching Coordinator for our ward. 

• This last week I was referred to a Dr. up at the U and am hoping to make some major strides in the health department. 

• Kade went to Boise this weekend for Seth and Kylie's baby boy's blessing. I had to stay for work, but wished I could have been there! I am missing him like crazy right about now!

Here are a few unorganized pictures for you to enjoy! 

plane ride

sunrise walk with my puppy hello to my home town

walker and i on the way to family pictures,,, he is so cute!

that amazing airport food i was talking about, and possibly the worst spelling of my name ever!!

the book i made for connor to take with him.

so proud him!

love these people! our world revolves around them sometimes

my valentines flowers kade sent to me at work

throw back to mexico and our uno tournaments

waiting at the doctors office. trying to keep myself awake!

Mickey D's has the best coke....

-until next time!

hayley and kade

Everyday Hero

You know its not everyday, you run into or watch a hero right before your very eyes. I always grew up believing heros were these great adventurers,  dragon slaying, girl saving, great Samaritans (blame disney movies if you must) to die for handsome men. But as I am growing up I find that they are not those list of things but something entirely different.

I remember the day I first met one of my hero's, I was four. The memory is a bit fuzy, I remember walking through a door and seeing a large bright window, that let in this glow that made all the details in my memory fuzz out into this glorious sunlight cream color. I remember the little face wrapped in a blanket and my parents asking me somewhere in the far distance, "what should we name him?"

Over our lives I honestly could not tell you every moment we spent together, and in all honesty I don't always remember any specific detail of my childhood or his. But today when he did one of the Bravest things I could imagine, they all came flooding back.

I remember thinking to myself,
"why is he so annoying?"
"why can't he just grow up?"
my parents telling me that "do you want to him to remember how mean you were?"
or a silent prayer "Heavenly Father, please let him live, I swear I will be a good example and and try to never be mean to him again."

But today none of that mattered. The sweetest kid I know, grabbed his bags out of the back of the car gave us all a hug goodbye and walked toward the next two years of his life, without even a look back over his shoulder.

He is my hero. He willingly does what he is asked, always believes that people are good even when they aren't and plans on spending two years of his life telling people how and what they should beileve because he believes in it with all his heart. He may not be a hero to you, but to me he is doing something I don't know if I could do. He has great strength, courage and a love for a people he has never met and that makes him my hero.

Be prepared, you will hear a lot about him.

I love you buddy.

finding wisdom in all things

 I have been feeling oddly overwhelmed lately. Unpleased with whats going on in my small world lately. Don't Judge me, you have been there too. Its like something is constantly missing and I keep trying to fill the odd little voids every now and then.

Which is why there are the 'put you in your place' moments that put life into to perspective that help us to understand better what we have and that we are 'okay.' 

9/11 did that for a lot us. It helped us to remember how lucky we are to have our safety, family and friends who are dear to us and a country that allows us our many freedoms to do as please during our life times.

I think our personal faith in what we chose to believe can also allow for these moments to pop up. Everyone has stronger moments and weaker moments, thank goodness they are aren't all at the same time! and I thank God for those that are strong when I am weak. Like my husband and his rock solid-ness. Its a source of fantastic strength for me. They(strong ones) all remind of the simple principles that make faith building possible.

Music is such a great strength for me, I am surrounded by it all day. It is played in the office and when you go into any store its most likely blaring. I never really noticed what sorts of music I listen to until I started working and the music that seems to be on repeat. I also realized how much CMT videos I watched I used to watch with my dad on Sunday morning before church.( my goodness do I miss this)  I think it is a powerful thing to put actions to words.

 For example here is one that made me basically sob tonight. (haha big baby I know) The thought of the kid going to school being nervous and scared made me want to fix it first then realized I am comfortable loved and taken of by those around me. I need to be a thousand times better to those around me. Wisdom in small places.

So I am sure you get the drift.. I got a good old fashion smack in the face, and I ended my sad pity party. 

I grateful it came tonight when I can really try harder to just be over all better, push myself harder to be who I can be. 

Hope my wake up wisdom in all things moments can help you all out:) Because lets be honest we all need to be reminded over and over again how we lucky to live where we do, know who we and be loved by those who love us most. 

love you all
-hayley

A month's worth

So we have been here almost a month this week, and it feels like its been a day and a half. Where did summer go? and why does it seem so far away? I see school buses now and the school supplies sections at all the stores!

Since we have been here we have been on the crazy busy side of life.
For example our place the night we moved in:

not to mention we had brought our bed and left it on the floor upside down. 

With out the walkers we don't know what we would have down with out them. Serious thank you's are in order! 

Kade has been working now for three weeks at his new job and so far so great. Its a learning curve being in a new industry with a new language, but as the wife I think he is doing pretty darn good:)

He turned 24! For  8months he is two years older than me! I think when we get older I will totally use this to my advantage:) For his birthday, he got some well needed work clothes and Oakley sunglasses with his prescription in them. Now He doesn't go anywhere without them.

Hayley has been just relaxing getting us settled into the apartment and the community. I haven't done the job completely because I still have no idea what ward we will go to since we have been all over the place since we moved here. I started my job last, and its nice to have something to do during the day... but I sure miss the pool. 

I have been helping out a friend with wedding plans and getting her cute new life in order. It will be awesome to see her go through the temple this week! 


Together  Kades brother and his came to visit us, it was so fun to see them even if the time was short! We went to dinner for the boys birthday, downtown Salt Lake. Leti and I went shopping and it was super fun! 

This same weekend I watched my aunt kids and Kade played with them:) 

Then that whole following we spent time with my family we drove up tuesday and kade drove back down the hill the next and I hung out with my mom and brothers, it was such a blast we went shopping ate super yummy food. Then Wednesday Walker came home with us for a sleep over and the next we went out on the boat. 

What next? um.. oh yeah my parents wen tout of town that weekend and my brothers came to stay with us that weekend:) Our one bedroom became a large bedroom:)  WE had a big breakfast for kade's birthday:)

Then there was a bunch of mix and match things that next week

then we flew this last weekend to California, and My dad, was made a bishop of the singles ward and they couldn't have gotten a better person for the job! they are super lucky!
we flew back yesterday worked half days and now we are stationary for a few short days:)





much love the baileys,

OH p.s.
we got these back!