First Haircut

Well I guess I should put first real haircut that Mommy didn't do. I've trimmed Hailey's hair a few times when she was a baby because it was growing uneven but this was her first time actually going somewhere to have a haircut. We took her to one of the kid's salons here in Raleigh because we had a half off coupon. She was a little nervous when I was telling her we were going to get her haircut. I think she was worried it was going to hurt.
She was so excited to get up in the tall chair when they finally called her name. She just kept looking at herself in the mirror and smiling.
Ryan took a picture of me explaining to the lady that I really didn't want much cut off, just a little to make it healthy.

 She thought the spray bottle to wet her hair tickled and laughed about the clip the lady put in too.

 She watched the TV in front of her for a few minutes but then saw the basket of lollipops. Then that was all she wanted to play with. She didn't even really want to eat any of them, just play with them and pick out one for everyone else she knew.

 That kept her occupied the rest of the time.
Here is the after shot

Can't even really tell a difference...but it is less tangly and even. She was so excited that she got a prize and has been pretending to cut our hair at home ever since. I need to keep the scissors out of reach of this one!

Fall Leaves

Ryan raked the leaves in our yard last week. For the last month, it seems, Hailey has been begging to jump in a leaf pile so this was the perfect opportunity.
It was pretty chilly that afternoon so I made Hailey wear a hat and she was so proud that she put it on by herself.

At first she just wanted to stand in the leaves and throw her bear in them.

Then Daddy threw her in. She was not a fan of that!

She said they were "too pokey"! Ha!
After that little adventure she decided that she wanted to help Daddy so she put on his work gloves and tried to dig some holes with the shovel.

Sweet girl. Too bad her dream was crushed about the fun of jumping in leaves...

Fun with a Box

We got a package in the mail the other day and I purposefully saved the box. Isn't that what you do with a toddler?! I knew it would easily be used for a thousand different things from a "car" for her toys, to a "car" for daddy to push her in, to something to hide in...the possibilities were endless.
Hailey decided to make it into a rocketship this time. I got out the crayons and stickers and she went to town, mostly with the stickers.

Here is my imaginative girl flying her rocketship, notice she had to bring a friend along on her voyage.

Then it turned into a car that they were taking to the grocery store, but she couldn't ever seem to find a "parking place" for it. Hilarious!

Then it became a car for all her animals...except she ran out of space.

I love her imagination!

Grateful Garland

Last year a friend posted on her blog about a new family tradition they were doing for Thanksgiving. They were going to make a "Grateful Garland" to display things they were thankful for. Then they took the garland and put it on their Christmas tree as a reminder of God's blessings. I loved the idea and decided that we were going to do it the next year. So for a year I've been thinking about how and where we were going to make our own family Grateful Garland. On November 1 I just couldn't wait any longer, ours went up...

I am so excited to make this a family tradition every year now!

First Dance Class

We signed Hailey up for a month of dance classes through our local community center. After doing gymnastics for a month this summer I wanted to see which she would enjoy more. Monday was her first class. She was SO excited. I don't think she really knew what was going to happen, she was just excited to do something new.
Waiting while her teacher set up the room

 Standing on her "spot" waiting for directions

There were 8 girls in her class and each one got a rubber spot to stand on as their own space. Hailey did really well staying on hers...at first. Then she got a little wild...

dancing with scarves

 

After the first two songs the teacher kept having to remind Hailey to go back to her spot. She was so excited she just kept wanting to run around. I was laughing so hard I was almost crying...
The hard part for Hailey was when they had to take turns doing things. Two girls would go at a time. Hailey didn't try to go every time but she wanted to walk beside everyone when it was their turn. So I had to go sit behind her.

At the end they did one more group song where they got to dance around in a big circle. Hailey kept wanting to go the wrong way.

She had SO much fun and is already asking to go back next week! I love seeing her experience new things!

Random Picture Post

I have lots of cute pictures (well, I think they're cute) that I can't fit into any posts, but I don't want to forget about them so here goes:

A few weeks ago Ryan was waxing his truck and Hailey was playing outside. He was working away and she went right over and started "painting" in the wax. It didn't faze Ryan a bit! I was thinking it would be bad for the car and mess something up, but instead of getting frustrated he just started painting with her! He's the best Daddy!

 My mom gave me some things for Reece last time we were home and one of them was this little baseball glove backpack. Hailey found it and started playing with it. She put it on her back and told me she was going to "baseball practice". It was so funny. She went into the other room for a few minutes then came back and said "I'm home!"

Playing Daddy's guitar

 We were playing outside with our neighbor Ty and he has this four wheeler that Hailey loves to drive. This particular day she decided to make her own "pumpkin patch" with the pumpkins from our porch. She wanted to carry them on the four wheeler but couldn't figure out how. I decided to let her do it on her own and this is what I saw...

Good problem solving Hailey!

Another day outside Hailey decided to pick the dandelions in the yard and "plant" her own flower garden.

This weekend Ryan was working in Reece's room, making the crib a crib again instead of a toddler bed. I'll just let you see what our little monkey did...all by herself

Yep! She scaled it. She figured out all on her own to climb the toddler rail to get up to the top of the dresser! This one keeps us on our toes!

Halloween

Friday evening Hailey got all dressed in her farmer costume to go trick or treating with our cul-de-sac buddies. We don't really "celebrate" Halloween but for us it's a good excuse to get outside and hang out with our neighbors...like we really need another excuse for that! ;)

Can you tell she was super excited for candy?!
Before we set off, we met up at our neighbor's house for some pictures of the kids.

They all cooperated! Can you believe it?! And aren't they precious?!
We only went around our cul-de-sac and down one other and we were done. Hailey didn't need any more candy and she got the experience and had fun with her friends.

When we got back home Hailey handed out a few pieces of candy

 Then we went inside and she played with her candy for like an hour. She built towers, sorted them and put them all in line. She didn't even want to eat any! It's the little things...

And just because I couldn't resist her good mood...a family selfie!

Next Halloween will look quite different with another baby in tow. I wonder what Reece will be...

Fun Friday Morning

Friday morning we decided to take Hailey to the Natural History Museum here in Raleigh. We had heard it was really good and they were hosting a special dinosaur exhibit that Ryan wanted to see. Plus, Hailey has been really into dinosaurs lately after playing with Ryan's dinosaurs at Mimi's house, so we figured she would like it too.
Since we've been traveling and missing our family Fridays together we decided to try and take Hailey out to breakfast as a treat. We don't really go out to restaurants unless you count Chick-Fil-A occasionally so there was no telling how it would go. We went to a place called First Watch that had just opened up and we had heard good things about. When we were seated and ordering Hailey enjoyed playing with the coffee creamers, building towers.

Our food came out really fast which was perfect because we were hungry. Hailey got a chocolate chip pancake that was HUGE. She ate almost half of it! It was soooo good!

Just about the time Ryan and I finished eating and were getting the check, she started to get antsy and wanted to see the dinosaurs so it worked out wonderfully!
When we first got to the museum we actually went in the wrong door and ended up just exploring about half of the free stuff before we even stumbled on the special exhibit. It was so neat! They had tons of exhibits and even some live animals in tanks (fish and snakes) Hailey loved looking at them all!

there were bats in the top of the tree (not live ones thankfully)

 

They even had a regular dinosaur section not included in the special exhibit. We actually thought it was better than the exhibit.

Hailey was fascinated by everything and just kept running from one thing to another squealing and "oooh"ing over it.
Ryan went and got our tickets for the dinosaur exhibit and we went into. Truthfully, we were kind of let-down with it. It was pretty small and we were thinking it was going to have some dinosaur skeletons and such. It didn't. They had a few kid-type things like this game and a big puzzle but mostly it was a huge dinosaur replica and a voice-over video telling about it.

The coolest part was this dinosaur "dig site" for kids to dig for dinosaur bones in. They got to wear goggles and use a chisel and brush to try and find the bones. Hailey loved it!

And so no one thinks I'm a party pooper...

Hailey insisted that Ryan and I wear goggles too!
After we left the exhibit we quickly went through the rest of the free part of the museum because it was approaching lunch and nap time. They had a huge sea life area that was really neat!
All in all, the Natural History Museum was really neat and definitely a place we will visit again. But, maybe not for their special exhibits...we had tons of fun doing the free stuff!