A Day in the Life

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Adorable Hailey/Update

Just a quick update on our lives. We had an eventful December. It started out with Matt and I running the St. Jude Marathon on the 6th here in Memphis. It was a cool experience - there were 13,000 people at the starting line and it was much better than I expected. Matt finished in 4:30. Great job! I finished slower - at 5:31. It was a harder race for me. I attribute it to the fact that it was only 5 weeks after my other marathon. Our good friend took some photos for us, but we don't have them yet.

The 18th-31st we had the wonderful opportunity to spend Christmas with the families. We loved every moment of it and saw most everyone. The only regret is that we didn't personally get any photos - just videos. One day we'll get both cameras going. Luckily our parents have photos, but for now, you just get some fun post-Christmas vacation snapshots.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

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.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

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.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Pucker up baby

Sunday, October 5, 2008

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.

Haileyisms

I always love reading the funny things kids say or do and I don't want to forget the things that Hailey does. So, I'm going to start a list - hopefully I'll come back to add to it more often than I have been. :)

4-18-10

In her bed yelling out to me (even though she's aware of the rule that once her door is closed we don't come back until morning...)"MOOOOOOOOM.....MOOOOOMMMMMYYYY.....DO YOU HEAR ME? I CAN'T HEAR YOU. YOU NEED TO SPEAK LOUDER. DO YOU HEAR ME? "

Every morning when Matt is leaving she stands in the doorway and says the cutest things like, "I love you, Daddy. Have a good day. Seed ya waiter. Be safe." She always reminds him, "Kisses, hugs."

Unfortunately Hailey has learned lately (by watching other kids) to be afraid of bugs. We keep telling her that bugs are nice and wont hurt her, but she persists in SCREAMING every time she sees one, or hears one (bees and grasshoppers, especially). And I'm not being sarcastic on the scream - it turns heads from neighbors. One day she got so upset she even threw up. It's so sad. Anyway, she says, "buggies go inside." This is her solution - because that's what makes the neighbors scary barking dog go away. What a thinker. :)

3-11-10

Hailey loves to do the same things Levi is doing. I was practicing sitting up with Levi and put my hand behind him as support while he was getting his balance. Hailey said, "you help me sit, Mommy?" She sat down and pretended to fall back. I was amused by her observations.

A few weeks ago during FHE we decided to teach Hailey to play hide-and-seek. She LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to play. Several times a day she'll say, "count to 20 and come find me." or "I count to twenty, you hide, and I come find you." It's so fun. She'll even play with Sandy, her bear. She even looks in a few places before finding Sandy, even though she's the one that hid her. It makes me laugh.

"Daddy, I don't want you to go to school. I just want you to stay with me."

"I sure love you mommy/daddy."

We've been potty training the last few days and Hailey has done incredibly! She has had a few accidents, but she definitely gets the idea and is doing very well. One of the fun things is that she loves the shapes/colors of her panties. Yesterday I had to laugh when she said, "hurry, I gotta pee in the potty. I don't wanna pee on my apples."

1-27-10

Hailey has really been into making up songs lately. Sometimes she does different words to tunes she already knows (Twinkle, Twinkle is a favorite tune) or most recently she's tried making up the tune and the words. So, today after church she's sitting in her chair at the table singing, "Jesus for me....Jesus for me..Jesus for me," over and over - higher pitched then lower. Later Matt told her to sing it for me so she ran through the living room (pigtails and hands flying) singing, "Jesus for Mommy, Jesus for Mommy."

Sitting in church today Hailey was looking at her Gospel Art Book from Grandma Stevens. She would turn to a picture, hold it up for me to see and say "what's this?" (Can you tell that's how she learns at nursery and FHE). One of the pictures was of Jesus when He was 12 and teaching in the temple. When she asked "what's this?" I told her it was Jesus when He was young. She said "no," and pointing at the man behind Jesus with a long white beard, "it's Santa."

"Maybe later" is one of Hailey's favorite phrases as of late. When I tell her it's nap or bedtime she says "maybe later nap" or "maybe later bed." I had to laugh when we were discussing in the car on the way home that we were going to have spaghetti for dinner and she replied, "maybe morrow spaghetti. We have macacheese for dinner."

If Hailey was older I couldn't tell this one - so thank goodness for sweet innocence of toddlers. We haven't 'officially' started potty training, but she knows when she needs to go poop. This morning she and Matt were enjoying cold cereal for breakfast when she started making her poopy face and moaning. She said, "I can't poop"...moan..."I can't poop. It's stuck." Matt grinned and they finished. A few minutes later she was running around with her little stroller and found Matt and exclaimed with great excitement "Daddy, I got it!"

Matt was walking out the door for school, and Hailey sent him off with, "Love your guts!!" (Yes, Matt says that to her.)

When Hailey first started going to nursery we'd chat with her in the car on the way home about nursery. One Sunday I was busy chatting with Matt instead of following the normal ritual. I heard her announce in the back seat, "Bubbles, fish, Addie (her friend), learn about Jesus."