Halloween

For Halloween we decided to have Hailey be a liger. We've had her lion suit for ages, but my sister Rose gave us a cute little Halloween outfit with pants that looked like tiger spots so we combined the two to make a liger. I played off the idea and was Deb, from Napoleon Dynamite. Matt had to work, or he would have made a perfect Napoleon. Hailey even got an award for the custest costume at our ward party.

Marathon #2 Completed!

So I'll admit that I'm pretty excited about finishing my second marathon. It was in a little town in AR. I finished at 5:02:23. I'm not the fastest runner, but they were very generous in their awards. I got a little trophy for placing 4th in my division (female 25-29). A big thanks to Matt for his support, to Phil, my pacer in the race (it was his 75th race) and the biggest thanks to Jana who got me out and running, took care of Hailey on the race day, and even drove to the race for the finish line.

At the starting line. It was a little cool, but it was nice to run in. It got warm by the end, I even have fun tan lines from my socks, shirt and watch.
At the start. This is probably my least favorite part - it's so awkward. The half and full marathoners start together so it's hard to keep your pace down where you want it with the crowd pulling you along. It's nice about a mile or two into the race. This was a small race - only 174 registered for the full and I don't think everyone showed. I don't know what to think about doing a race with thousands at the starting line.

After the race with my medal, trophy and t-shirt.

It was different doing the race alone (meaning without Matt) this time, but it was a really good experience. I'm looking forward to cheering him on in December.

Hailey Bee

We have a little bookworm. She's recently taken to reading in the rocking chair because she can reach her books from there. It's kind of nice - when I'm out of ideas I toss her in the chair with some books and she's entertained for 10-20 minutes.

We taught her to say "eeeee" so that we could see her teeth. Nice little chompers, eh?
Our first successful braids! I was so excited.

I'm so glad that she's patient with me - I love playing with her hair and trying out new little do's.

Hailey-sized Sonic slushy. She wouldn't let it go. It took quite a bit of distracting to make her forget what she was upset about after we took it away.

Hailey loves her bears and her blankets. Either are a sure laugh.

I forgot this photo - I took it last month, but when I saw it I laughed so I thought I'd pass along the joy.

We took Hailey outside yesterday with her hat and shades. She left them on the whole time, I couldn't believe it.

Hailey loves our trips out to the tennis courts with her push toy. She's always so excited about the leaves. She totes them around the whole time we're out.

Pucker up baby

Comic Book Contest

Okay...so it's embarrassing to admit that we're nerdy enough to take pictures like this, but I thought I might as well make something fun of it anyway. So...here's a little contest for the major bloggers and creative writers. We were goofing around with the effects on our webcam and came across a pop art setting. We posed like what we imagined pop art characters to look like (hence the drama) and got some pretty funny pictures...but have no script to go with. Any ideas?

Family Pictures

I've been thinking lots about getting our family pictures taken. We had them taken last October between sessions so I had the idea to do it again this year, but didn't make the plan and forgot when the day actually came. Oops. So....here's our webcam snapshots version of family pictures. Hailey wasn't too enthused about the idea...until we attacked her with kisses.

My Amazing and Talented Husband

There's a little 3-year-old girl in our ward that has recently been diagonsed with stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer. The Relief Society President found out that Matt painted and asked if he could paint some princesses on her wall. He went above and beyond and painted four life-size princesses on her walls. They look even better in person. The most amazing part was that Home Depot donated all the paints and brushes, nearly $150 worth of product. It was a great experience for us and I'm so thankful to have such a giving, talented and humble husband.

Baby in the Window

Hailey loves to look out the window. One day I realized she was smashing her nose and couldn't resist the opportunity for a funny photo. I had the tune to "How Much is that Doggy in the Window" in my head the rest of the afternoon.

Jedi Knight or Baby Nun?

Matt was folding laundry for me (sweet guy, huh!) and put his running hsirt on Hailey. I couldn't stop laughing!

Hair

This is the most intricate hair-do Hailey has let me finish. It's just been recently that she's had hair long enough to do it with. I had so much fun and she looks so cute and grown up! She's pretty good about sitting still, but I guess she doesn't have many places to move inside the sink. I'm glad she's patient with me!

One of the most fun parts of her hairstyles is the after-hair. We had her in some cute pigtails and this is what she looked like after.

My Belly Button!

We've had so much fun with Hailey finding her belly button.

Harmonica Hailey

Matt pulled his harmonica out to play it for Hailey. We found a talent!

Animal Planet, Lambert's and a long drive

Animal Planet had a large event here in town and brought in animals to display and had lots of things for kids and their animals. Hailey was a little young to enjoy too much of it, but she liked being a coughing muskrat.

It was extremely hot and humid out so we didn't stick around long, but we enjoyed our family outing.
We took a trip to Missouri to visit my sister and her husband, Mike and Rose, and their family. It was an extremely long drive (ten hours), but well worth the trip. We had so much fun with them. On the way back we stopped at the famous "Lambert's - Home of the Throwed Rolls" restaurant. (I thought 'throwed' rolls was funny and when I pointed it out to Matt he said, "well, we are in the south.") We had a long wait, but we enjoyed the train and other displays.
The food wasn't bad (the rolls were delicious) - I'd definitely recommend the experience to anyone. It was really fun. The ambiance was hilarious, but the size of my chef's salad served in a bread bowl was what shocked me most. Yeah, I didn't finish that in a sitting, or two!
During the long ride Matt found Hailey and himself some entertainment....

Red carpet ducks

The Peabody hotel downtown marches their ducks from their top-floor suite, down the elevators, and across a red carpet into the lobby fountain every morning and reverses the routine each evening. Matt's band went and played for their anniversary and duck march so Hailey and I went with some friends to listen to Matt and watch the ducks.

Apparently Hailey thought they were pretty astounding.....

Future tennis player with lots of teeth

Whenever she finds a hat she tries to put it on her head. Here she's modeling my Nike viser. She looks like the most adorable little tennis player, eh?

I added this picture thinking you'd be able to get a glimpse of her one-year old molar, but it may be too small. Just yesterday I found 5 new teeth (new since last week)! That's a total of 16 teeth now! The 16th is just under the surface so she's still going through the discomfort of teething, but continue to be a sweetheart. She got really sick this weekend because it was ten days after her MMR and chicken pox vaccinations. She threw up and fevered high for 3 days.

Note to other young mothers: I'd recommend that you don't let your child's pediatrician give the two shots together, it's miserable and not the best thing for the kid. I read up on it afterwards. I guess I know for the rest of the kids. Poor first kid guinea pig!

Our Little Cowgirl

Hailey and I were bored one day in the store so I tossed a cowgirl hat on her head. She loved it! We're raisin' her right.