Let it SNOW

McKinley was very excited to wake up this morning and find out that it had snowed! Chan was a little sad since it put a damper on the flag football game Justin had planned. The Manwaring kids were over bright and early (9:00 is early for us, ok?) to see if McKin wanted to play in the snow. She was still asleep, but once she woke up and ate she was ready and raring to go, in last years snow clothes which were a little tight. I guess we are going shopping.

A glimpse into the life of Hailey Bradshaw

On Friday, Whitney, my girls and I went to visit Hailey's (excuse me, Mrs. Bradshaw's) classroom and meet her students. It was so weird to walk into the Elementary school and ask the way to Mrs. Bradshaw's classroom. Her classroom was so cute and all her students had made her drawings and signs that said "Mrs. Bradshaw Rocks" and "Mrs. Bradshaw is an A+ teacher." Hailey had them all stand up and tell us their name and something interesting about themselves, which was quite interesting and quickly turned into a game of stupid human tricks. They then sang two songs they had been practicing - "Grand Old Flag" and "Fifty Nifty." McKinley loved watching all the kids. I was in awe of my little sister and what a great teacher she was. I met the principal and he told me what a wonderful young lady she was and how everyone loves her. I could never handle 30 5th graders like she does. All her students told me that Mrs. Bradshaw was the coolest teacher in the school. Anyway, it was fun to see Hailey in her element and I'm so proud of her and the talent that she has with kids. I wanted to take a picture of her students and her classroom to put on the blog, put I didn't want to be sued by some maniac parent so I decided against it.

After her class, McKinley went with Hailey and Whitney, Halle & I went to Idaho Falls to do some shopping and wait for Chan to get done working. We dropped Whitney off to my Mom and headed to Rexburg and saw the new townhouse that Hailey & Marc are buying. It was very nice and I think they will really like it and are making a smart decision. We ate dinner at the Hard Hat Grill and then went to Hailey & Marc's to get the girls dressed in their pajamas.

Marc, Halle, Hailey, & McKinley

Thanks to Marc & Hailey for hanging out with us, we had a great time!

Office Premier Party

Last night we had a little get together at our house to celebrate the premier of the greatest show ever invented, the Office! Chandler, Halle, and our friends Curtis and Jennie Cannon enjoying the show!

Justin & Chris doing the same

The youngest Office fan!

I couldn't pass up posting this great picture of Amber!

Thanks to everyone for coming, and we missed those who couldn't make it. Looks like its shaping up to be a great season!

Fun Sister Moment

Last night, McKinley was playing with Halle and Halle was cracking up. She's going to be a tough girl someday. Just when I think she's going to start crying because McKinley is scaring (and mauling) her, she starts laughing.

The most wonderful day in the life of a mom

That's right, I'm talking about the day your baby starts to hold their own bottle. Halle has been doing this better and better but still needs a little work. Today she did the best she's ever done. I couldn't get her to hold it long enough to get a photo, but I'd thought I'd share some cute pictures of her anyway and how big she's getting. She loves to turn over on her stomach and tries to crawl but she gets stuck there. She's so smiley and loves to play and laugh.

Isn't she beautiful?

Ride Night at the Fair

This post is a little late, since we went on the rides a week ago today, but better late than never.
Chan, Halle & Nana were the oberservers while we went on the merri-go-round. At the last second they said I could hold Halle so she ended up coming

Dad, Halle, me, McKinley, Whitney and our "adopted daughter" (not really) Anne on the merri-go-round. I love that my dad wasn't too old or too cool to get on the horse with his granddaughter. PS - Thanks to Becky for teaching me how to do the collages!

McKin & I getting ready to go on the cars

McKin, Annie & Whitney. These girls were good sports to go on all the "kiddie rides" with Mckin.

Annie & McKin on the Kangaroos!

Girls Party

This last weekend, my dad and all the boys in our family flew to LA for the weekend to see BYU play UCLA in the Rose Bowl. They had a great time, and the girls of course had a great girls party! We stayed the night at my mom's and froze corn all day Saturday (I know, what a rush) and then went to church and had dinner on Sunday. I didn't take many pictures to document the occasion, but I thought one thing was really funny. Lately, McKinley has been really into what "boys" can do and what "girls" can do so about 50 times a day I hear comments like "Boys can't wear dresses, huh mom" and "Boys can't sing girl songs, huh mom" so on Sunday morning on the way home, McKin was talking about the girl party and she said "Boys can't come to girl parties, huh mom" and I told her I guess not because then it would just be a party and not a girls party and then she said "Yea, boys can't come to girl parties because they have to go on missions, huh mom" I was laughing too much to explain that girls could go on missions too, I guess we'll tackle that when she's older. Thanks mom & sisters for a great weekend.

First Day of Preschool

Today was McKinley's first day of preschool. I was a little nervous but she was SO excited. We kept talking the whole morning about how she needed to do what her teacher said and that there was no crying or whining at pre-school. She chose her princess storybook to bring for show and tell. When we got there she went right in and didn't seem sad for me to leave at all. Halle was a little sad to see her big sister leave for pre-school. When I told McKinley this she started saying "It's ok Halle, big sister will be right back after she goes to high school." She gets a little confused some times from always hearing her uncles talk about high school.
McKinley is probably the youngest one at the pre-school but she loves it and I'm sure she'll do great. When she got home she ran in yelling "I had so much fun at pre-school!" She made a little lion craft and brought it home in her backpack. She told me that "she did everything the teacher said and didn't whine or cry about it."

Here's hoping the rest of the year goes well!

I've been tagged

I'm like Amber and usually not a huge fan of these things, but I had so much fun reading hers that I had to do it. Enjoy!

1. Who is your man? Chandler K. Daw
2.How long have you been together? We will be married for 6 years in December
3.How long did you date? We dated for 6 months and were engaged for 3, nothing like Justin & Amber's whirlwind courtship!
4.How old is your man? 28
5.Who eats more? Hmmm...this is pretty close, but Chandler says it's him. It's probably pretty even which is sad. Amber - There is no way anyone over 12 eats more than you do!
6.Who said I love you first? He did, right in front of the temple while we were watching the 4th of July fireworks.....ooh how sweet.
7.Who is taller? Chan is 6'0" and I am about 5'6" so he is
8. Who sings better? I definitely do. Chan has a little problem with tone deafness, but that's one of the things I love about him, he's still not afraid to sing out. For the first year we were married, I don't think I got through one hymn without giggling. He's gotten a lot better though.
9. Who is smarter? I did better in school, but he's more street smart than I am, so I think it depends on the subject.
10. Whose temper is worse? Definitely his, I know what everyone's thinking. No, not calm, relaxed, mild Chandler but yes it is definitely him.
11. Who does the laundry? I do. This is one chore Chan has never had to do, but I realized when I do ask him to help out, I need to be specific. One time, I asked him to switch the load from the washer to the dryer and the next morning I went down to find a load of wet, mildewy clothes sitting in the dryer. Apparently I forgot to ask him to also start the dryer.
12. Who does the dishes? I do the majority of the time, Chan is good to help out once in a while.
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do, he sleeps on the side of the door so he can protect me if someone comes in. I know I have weird logic, and we have a new security system so I don't know why I even worry (yes, we fall for nearly every door-to-door sales pitch known to man)
14. Who pays the bills? I do, but we both know where we stand. We see eye-to-eye pretty well on money issues.
15. Who is better at the computer? He's better at the really technical stuff, like hooking things up, I'm probably better at typing and that's about it.
16. Who mows the lawn? Until very recently, Chandler always did. The 1st time I tried a push mower I fell in the window well..... stop laughing! But we just bought a riding mower, which is what I am used to, so I like to do it and have McKin ride with me but Chan usually goes back and fixes all my mistakes.
17. Who cooks dinner? I do, I'm very fortunate to have a husband that will eat almost anything.
18. Who drives when you are together? He always does, and I've become a worse driver since we got married, which is hard to believe I know. He's amazing, he can drive forever even really late at night and not fall asleep...which is great since I'm not a big fan of driving.
19. Who pays when you go out? Same as Amber, Chandler carries his stuff in a big huge planner so he usually gets out my wallet and pays.
20. Who is more stubborn? We both can be at times, I would say he is but I'm sure he'd disagree. He's definitely more stubborn when it comes to arguing...see below.
21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Definitely me, I have to admit I'm wrong even when I'm not just to have the privilege of having communication in my marriage. I always joke (kind of) that if it weren't for me, we would still be in our very first fight.
22. Whose parents do you see most? Mine
23. Who kissed who first? Chandler practically attacked me (I didn't put up much of a fight), but he says to say that I couldn't keep my hands off him.
24. Who asked who out? What turned out to be our first date, wasn't really a date to begin with so it's hard to say but after that he kept asking me out, so I would say he asked me.
25. Who proposed first? He did, does anyone really propose second?
26. Who is more sensitive? Definitely me, Chandler is a pretty hard guy to offend. That's why we go well together, because he doesn't take offense to all the stupid things I say.
27. Who has more friends? That's hard to say, I think we both have a lot of great friends.
28. Who has more siblings? I do, he has 3 and I have 5.
29. Who wears the pants in the family? Chandler says it's me, which is probably true. I'm more decisive and Chan just goes with the flow.

I now tag Hailey Bradshaw, the only person left that I know who blogs and hasn't been tagged yet!

It's the most wonderful time of the year.......sort of.

The smells, the noise until midnight, the lights blaring in our back windows, people parking right behind my house, hearing the concerts from my kitchen, that's right....fair time! We went on Monday to the fair with Hailey & Marc, and our Annie the nanny. We ate some food, looked through the booths, saw the animals and then had to call it quits - it was way too hot and we were really tired. We'll have to go back another day to take McKin on the rides. If anyone goes to the fair they have to see the 800 pound pig, it was HUGE! If you don't make it, here's a pic.

Chan & I were able to go back at night and had Annie babysit. It was fun to see the fair and look at the booths out of the hot sun and without manuevering two strollers. It's a crazy time of year, but the kids love it. If anyone needs a place to park, our driveway is available!

The Hogle Zoo, how'd we get out?

After the wedding everyone in our family took off to see BYU take on Arizona, so Mom, Whitney and I took McKinley to the zoo. My cousins Greg & Aly were nice enough to take Halle for the afternoon so that we could better enjoy our time at the zoo - I owe them big! It was so nice of them and I heard that Halle & Greg bonded quite well.

We stopped at Aunt Lovinia's house to change and borrow her stroller. I didn't know all these years that Lovinia was in the same ward as Dallin H. Oaks so while we were there we also drove by his home. His wife that passed away was Lovinia's visiting teacher, so how about that? We had a good visit with Lovinia, she will be 90 in November and is still going strong.

"Nana" and McKinley with the elephants. McKinley was really enjoying her push up.

McKin posing with the zebras or "Marty" from Madagascar to the late person.

McKin was quite the tour guide and would tell us where it was time to go next. First the elephants, then the bear, next the penguins and then the crocodiles.......

Mom helping McKin get a drink in the Lions Head.

McKin & I with the giraffes which were her favorite animal at the zoo. As you can probably tell by now it is nearly impossible for McKinley to take a picture with her hands by her sides. They always have to be in some sort of weird pose.

Whitney and Kin with the giraffe. Again with the posing, wow! In this building there were signs posted everywhere asking everyone to please keep their voices down and make no loud noises or sudden movements because it could scare the animals so of course on the way down the stairs McKinley lets out a blood curdling scream for no apparent reason at all and then my reaction to yell at her for screaming just added to the loudness coming from our family. Luckily, we didn't get thrown out.

She couldn't pass up the chance to pose with the Rhino!

Me, McKin, & Whit with the camels. The last animal of the day, we then went on a little train ride around the zoo which she loved of course. Thanks to Mom & Whit for giving up the BYU game to come and hang with me & McKin.

After the zoo, we went back to Lovinia's to change and then to Alpine for the reception. We stayed in Provo on Saturday and on Sunday we went to my mom's cousin's sacrament meeting in Springville and then we went and saw Tanner's dorm and met his new roommates who were all nice boys and SO EXCITED to be at college. Tanner's already met some interesting people, he said he accidently collided with a kid at the net when they were playing volleyball and when he apologized the kid said it was ok because he'd taken much harder hits than that while running cross country (sorry to all the cross country lovers out there, I'm really not putting it down.) It will be a great experience for him to be at the Y, even though we miss him!

After that we went to of course Chuck-A-Rama (my mom's Uncle Alva started the restaurant and it's now owned by my mom's cousins, so eat there when we get the chance) and met my mom's sister Deb and her husband and sons Dave, Matt & Trevor. Matt & Trevor are going to BYU as well so they were there dropping them off and it was great to get to see them! We got to have Garrett ride home with us, which was great. He's such a great uncle and a fun guy to be around. It was a really fun weekend!

Congratulations Bret & Whitney

On Friday night we headed to Utah and on Saturday we got to see my cousin Bret get married to a darling girl named Whitney Rozier, they really make a cute couple. It was a great wedding ceremony and they had a beautiful reception in Alpine. At the dance after the reception McKinley pulled out all her greatest moves including her patented "shake your bum" move.

They had a great photographer and she wanted everything just right. This shot of the Wahlen, Baker, & Markham families took about 10 minutes to orchestrate. She couldn't get Val & Lori to cuddle close enough and "Red & Blue" (aka Aly & Greg) kept causing trouble. The reason I look so eager to show off Halle is that she kept saying "I can't see the baby's face." I was trying but 5 month old Halle was not cooperating.

The beautiful women in the groom's family: Peyton, Katie, Taylor, & McKenzie

Good Luck Bret & Whitney and Congratulations!