The Little Lady

I cannot believe how much Hailey has changed in just the last month or so. She is 22 months now. I can't believe she's almost 2! She is turning into such a big girl! I wanted to document a few things, mainly for me, since I am soooo far behind on scrapbooking.

I had Hailey evaluated about 6 weeks ago for her speech because she was only saying about 5 words. She did score a little low, and she qualified for some help, but the funny thing is, her speech therapist didn't set an appointment until the end of January. Well, I don't think we will need a speech therapist at all, because she is saying a TON all of the sudden! Some of her favorites to say are: "What's That", "more", "juice", "baby", and of course "NO!".

Hailey is becoming so much more independent and wants to do things her own way. She loves to put her shoes on, and tries to put on her coat. She hasn't quite mastered it yet, but when I try to help her get it on, she takes it all the way off, and starts over because she doesn't want my help. Along with this independence has come tantrums and stubbornness. Some days I wonder what happened to my sweet little girl! She knows what she wants, and makes sure you know! She still gives the best hugs and kisses though, and has the sweetest little voice I've ever heard. She likes to sing and dance and has great rhythm like her brother. (She didn't get it from me!) One of my favorite things to hear is when Hailey wakes up around midnight and decides she doesn't want to sleep. Well, after a few minutes of her realizing I am not going to come in and rescue her, she starts singing to herself, and it melts my heart!

Our "Camp-IN"

I got this idea from a friends blog and thought I would try something out of of the ordinary for the kids since its been sooooo cold lately! They are so sick of being cooped in! Poor Hailey is constantly pointing to the door and saying "out, out".
We did a "Camp-IN" this weekend. I told Carter Saturday afternoon to go put on his "camping" clothes, that we were going camping. I turned off the phone, and vowed not to do any housework! Bryan rigged up a tent that we could sleep in, we roasted hotdogs and marshmellows over the fire, watched movies and played. I had some camping themed games planned too, but the boys wanted to play G.I. Joe instead. This was such a simple thing and Carter all night long was saying "Wow, this is the best night ever!" Such little things that get the kids excited, I need to do these things for them more often.

16 STEPS!!!!!

Today is seriously one of the best days ever! The last few months I have worried so much about Hailey. 21 Months and still not walking. She's such a stubborn little turkey that one! Soooo able to walk, but not having the confidence to do it! FINALLY........she took up to 16 steps walking back and forth between Bryan and I with NO support! You don't even know how happy this makes me! I think within the next few days she's gonna be cruisin and you wouldn't even be able to tell there was ever a problem. GOOD JOB HAILEY GIRL! We love you so much!
(Thanks Carter for taking pics for us!)

Friday Fun

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year from our family to yours! Wishing everybody a Happy and Healthy 2010!

Our Christmas

Carter LOVES animals, and wants to be a "Pet Collector" when he grows up. We decided it was times to let him get a pet and see how "responsible" he can be! Bryan and I had a couple bearded dragons when we were first married, and they were relatively easy to care for, and very mild tempered, so we decided to get a couple for Carter. The original plan was to get them a few days early, and hide them in our bathroom until Christmas. Well, that plan didn't work too well! The morning after we brought them home, Carter noticed a bright light in the bathroom. I hadn't locked the door yet, so he goes to check it out. He comes running upstairs shrieking "Mom, Dad, did you buy me a lizard?" Us pretending to be clueless: "No, why?" Carter: "THERE IS A LIZARD IN THE BATHROOM!!!!!" We run downstairs acting completely clueless. We eventually told him they were from us, but it was funny as he was trying to figure out where they came from. This is a really foggy picture because I left the camera outside. We will get better pictures of the new additions soon. Carter named them Hashbrown, and Puff.

For Christmas Eve my parents came over. We had dinner and watched "The Christmas Shoes". This is Carter opening the traditional Christmas Pajamas. Unfortunately Hailey soiled through hers before the night was over, so I didn't get any of her in her cute Jammies on Christmas morning.

Carter wanted to give Hailey his present first on Christmas morning. He made her a little beaded necklace, and gave her some chocolate kisses. After she got the chocolate, she did not care about any of the other presents. She just wanted to sit on Grandma's lap and eat chocolate!

I took Carter to the dollar store to pick out a present for Dad. He saw this Star Wars helmet, and was sooooo excited to get it for him. Bryan wore it all day, it was pretty funny.

Hailey got this baby doll with bottle. She couldn't figure out the "milk" wouldn't come out.

Bryan in his Star Wars helmet, with ammo. Bryan had a hard time waiting for Christmas to open these guns up. Hmmmmmm.....were these for Carter or Dad? Now I am constantly picking up nerf arrows all over my house, what fun!

After opening presents, Mark came over and we had breakfast. My parents left and we headed for the hills to go sledding. I didn't get any pictures, but we had a blast! Carter got off lucky though. The place we went has a huge hill, a sidewalk, and then a playground right past the sidewalk. Carter wanted to go down the tube by himself. Bryan figured he could follow behind in another sled to make sure Carter was safe. Carter's tube went a lot faster than Bryans, so we watched in horror as Carter zoomed down the hill, jumped over the sidewalk and zoomed into the playground. We were just waiting for him to collide into the slide or something. He slid right through a bunch of poles that went underneath the slide, and didn't hit anything. He got off LUCKY! Lets just say he didn't do that again, although he wanted to, he thought it was awesome!

The day after Christmas we went to my parents house. We opened more presents, had brunch, and let the cousins play for the rest of the day. Here is a picture of Hailey with her cousin Izzy, and my brother Bryan.

Zippin and Slidin

Bryan put up a huge zip line that goes about a half acre from our yard, to our neighbors yard. We tried it out for the first time tonight. No broken bones....yay! The pictures are a little dark, but here's Bryan trying it out.

Here are our friends Mike and Hayden braving it. For the record, I DID try it, and it was a blast! The scariest part was climbing the ladder for me, not lovin the heights thing!

We pushed and pulled the kids around the yard in the snow tube too. As you can see Hailey was in heaven.