Weekend Project

We bought Hailey a swingset for her birthday and had been waiting for some warmer weather before we put it together.  When the forecast called temps in the 70s this week, we decided it was time. When the set arrived on our driveway in two big boxes, we knew it was going to be quite a challenge to get this thing together. 

Kevin unpacked and organized all the pieces in our living room

Hard working men

My sweet Daddy and brother came to help

Hailey helped supervise

Waving from the clubhouse!

After two full days of building, the swingset was finally ready. 

Climbing up....

Sliding Down!

R is for .......lion???

Hailey has been learning her ABCs.  She has been able to say the alphabet for some time now, but lately she has been working on recognizing individual letters.  Tonight she was playing with her foam letters while in the bathtub.  Kevin would hold up a letter, Hailey would yell it out and then name something that starts with that letter.  D-Daddy, M-monkey, P-pig....and so on.  She was just rattling them off and I was quite impressed!

Then Kevin held up the letter R, and Hailey goes R - lion!  We were like what are you talking about?? She just kept saying it over and over.  Finally I realized - lion goes roarrrrr! Whenever she sees a lion in a book or on tv she always yells roarrrrr.  We got a good laugh over this and I thought it was just too funny not to share!

Two year pics

Big Girl Bed

We recently converted Hailey's crib to a toddler bed and she's done surprisingly well.  It's been three weeks and so far we've had no problems with her getting back out of bed (knock on wood).  The very first morning, I heard her wake up and come down the hall into our room around 7:00, but since then she prefers to sit in her bed and holler mommy and daddy until we come get her.  We're fine with that - better than having her up roaming the house without us knowing.  Can't wait til she's old enough to get up, find herself a pop tart, turn on some mickey mouse, and let momma sleep in  :) but that will be a few years!

Two years old

Here's Hailey's stats at two years old:

35 inches tall.  Still in the 75th percenctile

27 pounds.  Between 50 to 75 percentile


Hailey knows her ABCs and can count to 10 (sometimes 14).

She also knows her shapes (circle, square, triangle, heart, oval, and star), colors (red, green, blue, yellow, orange, purple, brown, black, white, and pink), and can sing countless songs she learned at daycare.

She talks up a storm!  She uses three and four word phrases regularly and we can actually understand most of what she says.  It seems strange to be able to carry on a conversation with a two year old.

She is so funny! I really do think its her goal to keep us laughing.

Hailey's favorite things -
             Colors - pink and purple (love how she pronounces purple)
         
             Shows - Olivia, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Wonder Pets, Dora, and Fresh Beat Band (even though I find the show highly annoying)
       
             Foods - yogurt, bananas, apples, waffles, pb&j, cheese, goldfish, ketchup, and any type of juice.  She occasionally eats green beans, corn, and peas, but she is not a huge fan of meat at the  moment.
          
             Toys - her kitchen and little people dollhouse


We can't believe how much Hailey has grown and changed this past year.  We love you and are proud of you Haileybug!  Just don't grow too fast!

Happy Birthday!

 We celebrated Hailey's 2nd Birthday with family and friends.  I rented a room at the riverpark, and it was well worth it.  It's so nice to have extra space for everyone to spread out and actually have a place to sit. We decided to go with a jungle theme this year.  I found a cute pastel design that worked great for a little girl.  Kevin helped me make a leaf banner and he made an awesome hippo bean bag toss game. For table decor I used acrylic frames, superglued some wooden animals on the corners, and matted cute pics of Hailey on printed scrapbook paper.  I think they came out pretty cute - and they were inexpensive!

Hippo game made by my sweet Hubby

Waiting for all the guests to arrive

Hailey was excited about her party.  Several of her friends at daycare have celebrated their birthdays lately, so she knew all about the cake and ice cream.  She just wasn't quite sure what to do about the fire on her cupcake though!

Enjoying some ice cream with Uncle Keith

Right before present time, Hailey discovered her balloon.  Needless to say, she was much more interested in her balloon than opening gifts.  She got some really cute clothes, learning games, a Cinderella dress, and several movies!  We bought her a swingset, but it will not be set up until spring. 

Finding Nemo!

 About halfway through the party, it began to snow!  Luckily everyone made it home safe.  We really appreciate everyone braving the weather to come celebrate with us!

  

Hey, remember me???

I realize I'm a little behind getting things posted, but better late than never I guess.  Between keeping busy at work, tutoring elementary kids 4 evenings a week, chasing a toddler, attempting to keep the laundry and house clean, and the dreary cold winter weather, I just haven't been able to find time, energy, or motivation to do much anything else.  Not to mention it is now 30 days into the new year and I haven't begun to work on the few New Years resolutions that I did make!  Sorry for being a Debbie Downer!  So my goal this week, as we head into February already (yikes!) is to get back on track.  Stay tuned for several new posts this week!

Christmas Celebrations

We began our Christmas celebrations a week early by celebrating at my Aunt Kay's.  My mom has 3 sisters, so by the time you add in aunts, uncles, cousins, and now our husbands and children, it makes for a lot of people to try to plan around.  We've found it a lot less stressful to celebrate early.  I remember celebrating Christmas with my cousins - singing Christmas carols in front of the tree while waiting for our moms to finish cleaning up dishes so that we could open our presents.  (I'm pretty sure dad has those videos somewhere, bet those are pretty embarrassing!)  Now we're all grown up, and it's fun to watch our babies get excited over gifts.

Hailey opening her first presents of this Christmas season. 

She got a dress up doll, peek a boo baby, and a vacuum cleaner.

We celebrated Christmas Eve with Kevin's family. His aunts, uncles, and cousins were there too!  Hailey got to play with her cousins and they had a blast.

Hailey and Addison provided the dinner music

 Present Time!

We stayed up pretty late and ended up having to wake Hailey for Christmas morning presents with just the three of us. She was pretty excited to get her very own kitchen!

 

It took a little work to convince Hailey to leave her kitchen and get ready to head to my parents house for Christmas breakfast.  

 Opening presents is hard work,

 

 But after a quick nap, she was right back to playing...

 

and eating her fair share of Christmas goodies!

We had a great Christmas season.  Being able to experience it all with a toddler is that much more special.  Can't wait until next year when she's old enough to better understand santa claus -that should be fun!

Christmas Fun



Here's a run down of some of the activities that kept us busy leading up to Christmas.

Hailey is still not a fan of the big guy in the furry red suit.......



This is the best pic we were able to get.  Oh well, maybe next year!

And of course, we had to make our annual family trip (Oliver included!)  to see the lights at Creekmore!



Then it was time to decorate some Christmas cookies!

  You can never have too many sprinkles!

 She didn't quite get the idea of decorating now and eating later...

O Christmas Tree

Hailey was excited to put up the Christmas tree this year, and she just couldn't wait to help!

She loved all the pretty ornaments. Problem is, she thought they all looked good in one spot!

Fall Photos

Here are a few pics from our fall photo shoot. Hailey wasn't the most cooperative that day- she was more interested in running around and throwing rocks, but Lacy got some cute shots and we had a good time.