Spring Break!?!

Spring break has come and gone! I'm not too sure I would call it a "break". However, I did get to sleep to 7:30 each morning--which is really good for me! I painted the kitchen and the sunroom. We also kept a dog all week --which was nice for Dakota to have a playmate. I could really get used to not going to work every day!! 4 more weeks of school before the summer is here!

Last weekend, a 7 month old spent the night with us. (This is Grace--she belongs to the girl I team teach with).

We had the best time playing with her!

Chad didn't get too much work done on the house--he was too busy loving on her! It was really sweet!

Dakota was so curious and interested in all the new toys!

House Update:

My parents came afew weeks ago and Chad and my dad were able to build the sunroom floor. Now it is completely level with the rest of the house and ready to be tiled! We will tile both the sunroom and the kitchen. This will probably happen in early May.I am very anxious to get this room finished. Thanks so much to my dad who knows how to do everything!!!

After tiling, we will still have lots of work to do. We are remodeling the laundry room and building a window seat. This will give me much more storage which is always necessary in an older home!

We are almost done with the master bathroom. This was quite a project!! All we have left to do is crown molding, new window, shower fixtures, and a shower door. We will get there eventually but at least it's functional right now and 100% better than what we had!! Here's pics for now, but I'll post more when it's completely done.

I'm really bad at this--so sorry!!

Okay, so I knew that I would not be very good at updating our blog! To be honest..there has not been anything really interesting going on lately.

We've just been extremely busy the last few months. We're still trying to finish up our master bathroom. The past few weekends we haven't had a chance to work because we had other things going on--friends having babies, weddings, babysitting...

We are tiling our shower which is very time consuming, but hopefully it will be well worth it in the end (we're praying for no leaks!!).

At the end of March, we will be starting on our sunroom floor. My parents are coming for about a week to help us get started. That's very exciting! We will be basically building a floor and will tile the sunroom and kitchen so it will be one big room. I also plan on painting it again--I don't really like the color I painted it a few years ago. I'm sure that project will take us well into the summer. At least we've had some help from Dakota!!

So..I will try to keep you updated! Like I said..nothing really interesting right now! So sorry.

We have had fun lately dressing Dakota up!! She's so big--she looks like a person (and she thinks she is, too!!)

Our first snow in Georgia!!

We were very surprised to actually get snow last night!!
It was beautiful while it lasted. When we woke up in the morning the rain had pretty much melted it all. So...that meant...no time away from work!! Oh well...
Dakota loved it!! It was her first time EVER seeing snow, so it was quite humorous!! She couldn't keep her nose out of it!

We made it to the New Year!

We're so happy that the New Year is finally here! We had a nice Christmas break and were able to visit with my family and Chad's family. We got to visit with all of our siblings--which is not often that we can ALL get together at the same time. It was very nice!!! Ryan (Chad's brother) and Kari are expecting a baby this year, so it was fun to get to see them!

Jeremy and Cass also got to stop by while we were in Clinton--so it was great to catch up. And Eric and Amanda were at the beach while we were there--so we got to hang out!


After all of our Christmas travels, we made it back to Atlanta in time for the Chick-fil-A bowl! It was the first time we've been to a Clemson football game all year,so we were very excited--despite the loss!!!

The best part was that we got to go to the Truett Cathy Tailgate before the game. We had so much fun eating good food and hanging out with our friends that went to Auburn!!
Finally..after all the excitement of the New Year, we were able to do some shopping for our bedroom. We have closets now! My dad and Chad were able to build the master closets before Thanksgiving. So.. I was finally able to decorate our master bedroom. I love it!! It has become quite a retreat!! I can't wait for the master bathroom to be finished as well!!! Here are some of the latest pics of our bedroom. I'll post pics of the bathroom soon.

Fall Update

So sorry we haven't written anything since summer!! We no longer have internet access at home, so it makes it difficult.

We just got back from a weekend trip to Gatlinburg. My whole family went--even my grandparents, so it was a great time to catch up!

Chad and I were so ready for a break. We've been remodeling our master bathroom and we really needed a weekend when we didn't have to wake up early and go to Home Depot!!
We went to Cade's Cove twice while we were gone. The weather was perfect and it was beautiful!!

It was so nice to be able to sleep in and just relax!! We watched a lot of football--which was also nice for a change. We were so happy to see the Tigers win and Carolina lose!! Our Saturdays are usually consumed with electrical, plumbing, installing toilets....etc.!

Work is going well for both of us. Chad may have an opportunity in the near future to travel overseas for work. We'll keep you posted!

I am very thankful to have my team teacher back from maternity leave. We are down to 18 students in our class--which is great! We've had alot of students leave because of the crackdown on illegal immigrants--which is the majority of my class.

I am posting some pics of our bathroom so far because I've had some requests. It doesn't look like we've done alot--but I asure you that we have!!! We tore out our closet so that we could build a separate tub and shower. So, we've had to redo all the plumbing and electrical. We've installed the tub, so our next step is to put drywall up. Then it will look alot better, but I'll keep you posted.

Summer Road Trip and Back to Reality

We made it back from our trip out west---and we had a great time! We started in Las Vegas, NV where we got to walk along the boulevard and see all the huge casinos. We walked in a few of them and really enjoyed watching the fountains at the Bellagio.

However, after a night in Vegas we were ready to move on!

So...we traveled the next day to Sedona, Arizona --stopping along the way at Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.We camped in Oak Creek Canyon-one of America's top 5 most beautiful scenic views--enough said!!

Day 3 we traveled to Flagstaff and then to the Grand Canyon. We were amazed by the Grand Canyon and loved camping at the national park.

We hiked down into the canyon 1.5 miles and saw some great views--it was incredible!!

The next day we traveled to Lake Powell. We rented a kayak and got to weave in and out of canyons and jump off of cliffs. We loved being at the water--it was so refreshing to cool off and take a break from hiking.

After kayaking, we headed 2 hours to Bryce Canyon National Park. It was very unique and we loved it! We got to hike down into the hoodoos (the weird shaped rocks)--which was alot of fun!
From there, we headed to Zion National Park for 2 days. There were several great hiking trails there. The first was hiking through a river down between cliffs that kept getting narrower. At the end of the trail, it gets so narrow, your body can't fit through.

Our favorite trail was the Angels Landing Trail. It was a hike straight up a cliff and the last part of it was an 800 foot drop on one side and a 1200 foot drop on the other side. The trail to hike on was only 3 feet wide. So there was a chain for you to use for support. The view from the top was amazing!! It was a very strenuous trail , but it was very much worth it!

We really had a great time and would love to go back out west soon! There's still so much we want to see!!

For now, we're both back to work. I (Mollie) started school this week. I'm still teaching Kindergarten and I have 17 kids along with my coteacher (who will be having a baby any time now!!). Pray for me as my coteacher leaves for a few months. I will have a substitute, but it just won't be the same.

Chad is staying busy as usual. I guess what's consuming most of his mind now is the fact that we have started remodeling our master bathroom. He completed demolition when we got home and so hopefully, in a few months, we'll have a brand new master bath. It's going to be pretty major so I'll keep you updated.

It's July Already?!!??

Wow! Our summer is going by so quickly!! This past weekend we traveled to Hartsville, SC for Leslie Gardner's wedding. It was so much fun to get to see some of our friends from college that we haven't seen since last summer! I hate that we all live so far apart from one another. Leslie looked beautiful and happy to finally be getting married!!!

She is now Mrs. Leslie Johnson!! To see more pics, click here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/molliehayes/LeslieSWedding?authkey=xeNaXyqGCCE

Chad and I got to stay with Lara and Benson at her parent's house, so that was so much fun catching up with them!!!

After the wedding, we headed to Little River, SC to stay with Chad's parents. They live about 5 minutes from Cherry Grove Beach, so enjoyed being beach bums for a few days and taking Dakota out to swim. Dakota absolutely loved every minute of the beach!! It was so cute watching her and Chad swim together. Dakota adores Chad!!

For more beach pics, click here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/molliehayes/BeachJuly4?authkey=wbRPKU5X9_0

Now, we're back home--back to reality. I'm finished teaching summer school, so I have the rest of July to relax and do some babysitting. Chad is back to work until the end of July. We'll be leaving July 24 for our vacation out west. We're super excited!! We'll be flying into Vegas and then driving to Sedona, Arizona, to the Grand Canyon, to Glen Canyon, to Bryce National Park, UT, to Zion National Park, UT, and then back to Vegas. It will be a very busy road trip---but I'm sure we'll enjoy every minute of it!! We're sad we can't take Dakota with us, though. I'll have to update you with pictures as soon as we get back. Let us know if any of you world travelers have some suggestions for "must-sees" while we're on our trip!