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.

Hailey's First Birthday

By popular demand, I'm doing an update. I'm so bad at keeping up on this thing. I'm pretty good at emailing the photos to family, but that's about as far as I go. So....I'll try to do better (at least more often than every 2-6 months like I have been). I was going to try to go back and catch up on March-June, but I'm just going to skip ahead to the latest....

HAILEY'S FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!

For her party we invited some of her closest friends Addie, Julia, and Hunter. Addie and Julia are just three weeks older than Hailey. We had blueberry muffin cake (Hailey LOVES blueberries) and balloons. They had a great time.

Daddy's Hat

Matt decided at the last minute not to wear his hat to school and tossed it on the couch on the way out the door. When Hailey woke up from her nap we were playing and I couldn't resist seeing what she'd look like in her daddy's hat. It was a blast. She thought it was so funny when it'd fall down in her face. She'd flap her arms and kick her legs and wait for me to pick up the bill to say "there you are!" The simple joys of babyhood.

Update Grandioso

I was getting overwhelmed by the idea of updating after a few month lapse, so I just decided to grab some of the cutest photos and post them in one big post. I'll give a brief caption to each photo for anyone that wants to take the time to read.

Hailey's hair is getting so long (well, relatively) -- the other day I decided to see what would happen with mousse. I thought it was pretty adorable.

We had the recording equipment out and we just had to see what Hailey would do. She thought they were great. We've got a future recording singer on our hands, folks; Jazz singer, of course (at least according to Matt).

Yes, this photo was posed. Matt went to get her up in the morning and put her hands on the railings and she held tight. We couldn't resist taking the shot! She was pretty pleased with her newly-found point of view.

This is one of her favorite "perches." She sits there and looks down at us. The other day I put her hands over my eyes to play peek-a-boo. She thought it was pretty hilarious. She has such an adorable little laugh.

We called this photo, "the lion sleeps tonight." She wasn't really sleeping - the flash just made her blink. This is a preview of this year's Halloween. We found the costume at a fantastic yard sale at a Catholic church here in town. Not too bad for $1.50!

We got Hailey her booster seat and she loves it!! She feels so grown up sitting in it. We're pretty consistent in putting her there only for meal time, so when she gets in and sees me getting the cereal or baby food, her little beg starts up. It's quite precious.

What can I say about this one? It's just plain adorable.

Hailey loves to stand up - she's got enough balance that she just stands up against my legs -- very useful at times! She's got a pretty sweet disposition. Right now she doesn't have as much attitude as this pictures depicts....we'll see what the future brings.

This is one of our favorites of her smile!

Matt couldn't resist joining in the fun. He had to try it on to make sure it was comfortable enough for Hailey to wear.

Hailey has a favorite new chewtoy! Her socks are always wet now....and after she's eaten something like carrots or sweet potatoes, they're orange.

She's a natural poser, what can we say?

This is the day we gave her her first solid foods - rice ceareal. She's graduated to oatmeal, carrots, green peas, green beans, butternut squash, and sweet potatoes. She loves them all. She's really good at eating off the spoon. The only thing I've found that she's not too much of a fan of is....water. I don't know yet what I'm going to do about that one. The only time she doesn't turn her head is when it's coming from a drinking fountain (Matt learned this one) or coming from an adult size cup - she thinks they're "cool." Too bad she can't successfully get much from either of these!

As you can see from her smile, she loves her seat! I had to include the one of her inspecting it so you could see her "concentration face."

She has become so much more playful. The one above is of her in anticipation of me flicking me hair into her face. The one below is the cute grin she gives us every time we talk to her.

Matt thinks it's funny to do weird things to her -- wrap her head in her blanket and see how high he can get her tights.

One Friday night for a "home-date" we build a fort, made homemade pizza, and watched a movie. Hailey thought the fort was pretty cool when she came out the next morning.

This was taken on Hailey's 6-month birthday, January 28th. She's grown up so much!! A few developmental highlights: She's 27.5" long (97%), she's 14 lbs 10 oz (25%), she sits, scoots on her tummy (that's a new one from this weekend), resists rolling, loves solids, and....drumroll please....sleeps through the night!! Obviously this is my favorite developments. She's constantly chatting (Matt tries to tell her to be quiet at church, yeah right), and when we pat her mouth, she sings so she can sound like a little Indian. She hates loud noises (blender, vacuum, kids squeeling or growling) and makes the saddest crying face when she's scared by them. Bathtime is still a favorite, but she's grown out of the baby tub. She looks so tiny in the big tub, but she loves the space!

Every so often she gives us a funny face....we can't help but bust out laughing at her.

Her eyes are still very blue, but I keep telling Matt that I still have a chance of my genes winning out until she's one. He's not convinced. It's a good thing I think her blue eyes are adorable.

Sweet little baby feet. Sometimes she has the funniest stances with her feet. This one is relatively normal. The others look like she's a ballerina.

She loves being on her tummy and spends a great portion of her playtime there. She's plenty strong enough to roll, and has done it, but she just doesn't really like to yet. When I try to practice with her, she resists (very strongly at that). Perhaps it's because she doesn't like the initial shock and little bonk on the head.

Her favorite time of day is family playtime in the morning before Matt leaves for school and in the evening before she goes to bed. She gives some of the biggest smiles and is completely content.

The lastest family snapshot - it was the best we could do with the camera timer.

Here's a shot of her standing up against my legs. Like I said, it's very convenient at moments.

As you've looked through these photos, you may notice that a very important two-week period (the holidays in Idaho) is missing. We had a fabulous time, so much that we didn't take as many photos as I would have liked. Most of them are still on cameras there. But suffice it to say that we had an incredible time and Hailey had a blast meeting everyone again!

This is when she was first learning to sit up. It was funny because she got progressively lower and lower until her nose was practically touching the ground. Poor kid.

We were going through her accessories drawer and found this hat. She gave some great poses. This is just one of the cutest.

I was walking to pay our rent when I saw this leaf and had to take a picture. I've never seen a tree leaf this large! It was even longer than my size 9 shoe!

Flat Janeen

My 10-year old niece Janeen is here in "flat Janeen" form to spend some time with us. Hailey and Janeen have fun together in Hailey's swing!

Matt teaches Hailey...

Matt and Hailey did a duet of Heart and Soul the other day and I got a fantastic video. I just have to figure out our video camera so I can get it posted.

Matt loves to see Hailey stand and she loves to perform.