January in Pictures-Part 2

Hailey loves to ask me things about Reece. At dinner she always asks me if Reece likes what we're eating. She loves to tell him good morning or just randomly says "hi buddy" to him throughout the day. It is absolutely precious. This particular day we were playing with her animals and she just put the lion to my tummy and said "Look Reece. It's a lion. Can he see it Mommy?" She is going to be such a good big sister!

One morning as I was getting ready for church Hailey turned on the music on her "computer" and had her own little dance party!

This one accidentally got left out of my Christmas post. Mimi and Hailey had lots of tea parties while we were there. Hailey was thrilled that Mimi let her use breakable cups and a real teapot. They had juice for tea and crackers for cookies. Hailey was so proud that Mimi let her pour it all by herself!

 

 We had story time with all of the Lion King friends.

One afternoon Ryan had been reading a book for work while Hailey was taking a nap. When we got up she was playing and Ryan and I were in the kitchen. She came into the kitchen like this and said "Look, I'm Daddy" complete with the hat he'd been wearing, book and highlighter!

Our friends gave Hailey a guitar for Christmas and she wanted to play it just like Daddy

And now we are very into My Little Ponies. She watches the show occasionally but more LOVES to play with them and brush their hair. She takes them in the bathtub, to the store and she has a soft one that she likes to sleep with too. She knows their names and is enthralled with them. We got Hailey a barn and some animals for Christmas this year but I never envisioned it being used like this...

One morning Hailey told me that she was "too hot" (in her cotton pajamas, mind you) ;) and that she needed a new shirt. Guess which one she went into her room, opened the drawer and found all on her own? She could not be convinced that she didn't need to wear a short-sleeved shirt in January.

 And our little girl will be going to preschool in the fall (Lord willing). So we've spent some time doing tours and looking at a few preschools. This time Hailey had to go with me and she LOVED it. She is so ready. I think she wouldn't have missed a beat if I would have left her there that morning. She even got to paint a picture!

My little girl is growing so fast!

January in Pictures-Part 1

We've been super busy this month but unfortunately that means the blog has taken a back seat to the fun we've been having...Here is just a glimpse
We've been working on potty training for what feels like forever. Hailey is doing well though. We're making progress. She still wears a pull-up for naptime and nighttime and this particular day she put it on all by herself. She was so proud!

 My parents came up one Saturday to help work on Reece's room and brought her Christmas presents from Tennessee since we weren't able to go. My aunt made her a big sister shirt to wear when Reece is born. Can you tell she liked it?

 My uncle got her a cash register. We have played countless rounds of grocery store and "casher" as Hailey calls it. She loves to scan anything she can find and now she knows how to use the microphone too!

Gigi got Hailey an adorable ironing board. It was so perfect because anytime Hailey sees me iron she wants to help and use it too. She just doesn't quite understand that it's hot. This was the perfect gift because now we can iron together! (excuse my large preggo self in the picture)

Ryan went on a retreat one week and my mom came to stay and help me with Hailey. We took her to the mall one afternoon and she wanted to ride the bull. So we had to take a silly picture for Daddy.

This girl has a new-found love for cashews. I've been eating them as a snack every once in a while and now she loves them!

 All Aboard!

 Silly girl playing with her jewelry

We went to Marbles (the kids museum) for the first time in a few weeks. She was having a blast playing in the water. She's laughing because she was putting the ducks in the stream and it was squirting her.

One afternoon Ryan and I were working in Reece's room sorting clothes and such and Hailey was playing with her stuffed animals. She was in and out of the room taking hats and socks. All of a sudden she walks in like this and says "Look at me and my doggy. We're going sailing." Her imagination never ceases to amaze me!

Pictures Part 2 coming soon...

Hailey's Big Girl Room

So we moved Hailey into her "big girl room" a few months ago, but just really finished getting it how we want it so here are the long awaited pictures.

Looking in from the door

The one thing I really wanted for her room was a doll house bookshelf. I knew they were expensive, so I was on the lookout for a used one in good shape. Our friends in Charlotte were selling one their daughter had outgrown and Ryan's parents were able to pick it up for us! I was so excited!

This little nook in her room is perfect her her Anywhere Chair, the bookshelf, lots of books and a few toys.
The other side of the nook...

You can kind of see it in the above picture but she has a giant, and I mean giant bow holder that Ryan made for me. We were able to find a huge frame at a thrift store, paint it white and he made the rows for me to hang all of her bows on...well almost all of her bows. 

 There may also be a smaller one behind her door. ;)

Looking towards the door

There you have it! Our big girl's room!

Christmas in Charlotte

We traveled to Charlotte the Monday before Christmas. We spent the first part of the week with my family and then went to Ryan's parents the day after Christmas. Here are some quick pics of our time:

Das got Hailey donuts for our first morning there and she loved the snowman one best

 Getting ready to help Daddy in the garage

 Ryan changed the spark plugs in my car while we were there

Justin (my brother-in-law) and Ryan playing Candy Land with the kids

On Christmas Eve we went to service with my parents and Hailey was super excited about the candles...until we lit them. Then she just wanted to blow it out.

 Mack stealing Grams' fruit on Christmas morning. He went around and cleaned everyone's plate for them.

 Opening presents

Hailey loved opening presents this year. She finished opening hers and then tried to open everyone else's! She got some fun games, pajamas, Mrs. Potato head and a baby stroller. She loved pushing her stuffed animals, and anything else she could find, around in the stroller for the rest of the day.

The next morning, we got up, packed up and headed to Ryan's parents house. We weren't going to actually celebrate Christmas with them until Monday so Mimi let Hailey open a present each morning. She was so excited every morning for us all to get up so that she could open something new. She got a few new games and we loved playing them...not that we actually played by the rules, but hey, she's not quite 3 yet.
Hailey got lots of time to love on Beau (their dog)

and get ticked by Poppi

There were a few not too cold days so we got to go outside and "walk" Pluto and check Mimi's mail

One afternoon she played doctor with a stethoscope she found in the toy box. She called "patients" in from the waiting room, checked them out and then gave them a sticker!

We got to go visit a friend who had a new baby. Hailey liked holding him but really wanted him to play with her. She may be a little upset when Reece gets here...

Finally we got to celebrate Christmas with Ryan's family on Monday night! Hailey had been dying all day and just barely made it through dinner! She kept asking me if everyone was done yet. Ha! Before opening presents we had a little concert courtesy of Kristin (Ryan's sister), Hailey and Nala.

Hailey was so excited to get Bonsai (the hyena from Lion King) She had been begging us for a stuffed hyena FOREVER. Seriously...her favorite characters in the movie are the hyenas...

After she opened her presents she loaded them up in her "car" and went to the mall to Bass Pro to see the "long nosed gar". I'm.not.even.kidding.

It was precious. This girl has the most imagination I've ever seen!

We had a great Christmas vacation visiting family and friends and are so thankful that we live close enough to do so! We headed back to Raleigh on December 30th and are busy painting Reece's room before Ryan heads back to work next week!

More Christmas Fun

So I know it's January but we got back from our Christmas travels a few days ago and this is the first chance I'm getting to catch up. So here is the rest of our Raleigh Christmas fun.

We took Hailey to see Christmas lights at two houses that we had heard about. She loved it! They were both synced to music thru a radio station and she loved hearing the Christmas songs and seeing the many, many decorations.

 And here is my Christmas cutie reading her stuffed animals a story.

Hailey came down with another cold/low fever the last few days before we left for Charlotte so we didn't get to do a few of the other things that I wanted. We spend a lot of time snuggling, reading and watching Curious George instead. Oh well...I just didn't want her sick on Christmas.
We decided to celebrate our Christmas here in Raleigh the Saturday before Christmas because we planned to leave on Monday and wanted Hailey to have a chance to play with her new toys before we left. We decided to do a stocking and three gifts for her each year because she gets so many gifts from our families. It's really made us think carefully about what we buy for her and get things that will be fun for her. This year one of her presents was a barn and farm animals. Our neighbor has one that she loves to play with and with her love for animals we thought it would be a hit.

Well...she liked it but her new Lion King stuffed animals took the prize this year. I was able to find her a Nala, Timon and Pumba (she already had Simba). Those have definitely been her favorite between her love of the movie and her love of stuffed animals. Nala has gotten LOTS of snuggles.

We've also had a lot of fun with the window markers that were in her stocking!

After we opened up her Christmas presents it started snowing! Snow on "Christmas"! (well, our Christmas anyways). There were some pretty big flakes coming down. Of course it didn't stick but it was fun to see anyways.

Did you notice Nala had to come outside in the snow?! And that my coat almost didn't zip over the baby Reece bump? Ha! He's getting bigger! It's crazy to think that next Christmas we'll have TWO kids!