Annie's Exercise Gift

Because Haley "appropriated" Annie's MP3 player, Annie asked for her own. So We ordered this nice SanDisk "Sansa 512MB" MP3 player from Circuit City. It was on sale and had free shipping. And with the gas prices the way they are (Over $3.00/gallon), this is a nice little gift. It has an FM tuner, a voice recorder, and organizing music is very simple. Using Windows own Music software I can not only convert songs into "wma's", I can also make playing lists that can be synchronized with the main computer.

Now, the question is... will Annie actually use it? Or will Haley once again sneak it to her room? Stay tuned!

One Birthday Cake; One Mom; One Happy Birhtday Girl!

Haley and Annie pose for an official 13th birthday picture.

Haley with her new Aria AD-80 on her birthday.



Decided to give her her own billboard for her birthday too!

Haley Says Thank You To Grandma and Grandpa

Haley Says Thank You To Grandma and Grandpa

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Haley's grandma loves to make unique greeting cards. For her 13th birthday, Haley received a card that had memorable pictures of Haley's younger years. In appreciation Haley offers this as a thank you.

(3 seconds)

Haley had a great 13th birthday! 

Rainy Memorial Day Weekend 2006

Rainy Memorial Day Weekend 2006

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Normally here in NW Oregon, Memorial Day Weekend signals the beginning of the vacation season. Lots of campouts, barbeques, etc. are planned. Unfortunately, this year it's a rainy affair.

(14 Seconds)

Haley Playing White Guitar

Haley Playing White Guitar

A great place to post videos (and have them cross-post over here to Blogger!) is blip.tv.

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Although training on acoustic guitar, Haley loves to sneak away and play her white Fender electric!

(1 minute 49 seconds)

Haley's Trip to the Beach!

The Official Picture! Haley, friend Robin, Grandpa, Grandma, and Mom just outside the casino at Lincoln City, Oregon. Haley turns 13 a week from Sunday and her wish again this year is to go to the beach.



This is a nifty way to put frames on pictures... in this case our picture is a postcard stamp! Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Okay, okay, it's Haley's Birthday trip to the beach but her mom and dad want to get into the picture too... here we are! (Lincoln City, Oregon)


PS Annie loves this picture because she is standing up on a rock so she can be taller. Rock on, Annie!

The birthday girl herself. (photo taken by friend, Robin)


And these pictures are from one year ago!

a very nice picture of Haley taken by Annie. 

Haley's Guitar Arrives!

Haley will be receiving her main birthday present early...the Aria AD-80 is known to be as beautiful and rich sounding as the Martin D-28 which costs several thousand dollars. We were able to find this great guitar from a fellow in Mississippi. He is a musician and has his own tiny music store (smalltownmusic.com). He was very nice and sent a personal note telling Haley she would really like this guitar. He said he has one employee and that employee used to live in Portland, Oregon. The employee says Forest Grove is, "a cool town". Yep. ...Happy Birthday, Haley!

An Agate Guitar Pick For Haley's Birthday

Haley's Modern Birthstone is emerald. However, ancient traditional birthstones, like for Rome, were agates. For her birthday we are giving Haley an agate pick. This agate is from the Yellow River in Henan Province, Mainland China. It is 2.0 - 2.5 mm thick. We will be curious to see if this is too thick for Haley to play with. She currently uses an "extra heavy" plastic pick. It is said stone picks have more mass and create a more solid, pleasing tone on guitars. We'll see!