Mother's Day

I am so thankful and feel so blessed to be "Mama" to this little cutie! I am also blessed to have such a great Mom who invested in my life and taught me what it means to be a mommy. Hailey is blessed to have two wonderful grandmothers who love her and set such a good example for her mommy to follow. I hate that we couldn't be with them today, but we love you Grams and Mimi!

I know this isn't a great picture of Hailey but I wanted you to see her dress...it's another one that me and my sisters wore when we were little.

We've Been Busy

It's been a little while since I've posted...We've been super busy these last few weeks! Here is a quick catch-up in pictures.

We've been playing outside as much as possible when the weather is warm. Hailey just loves being outside.

Watching Elmo with Elmo. So sweet!

Our Life Class did a service project day at one of the local elementary schools. They prepared several "Nature Areas" for the school to use. Hailey and I stopped by to say hi and she was fascinated with this fake fox-thing that they have to keep the geese away. She kept trying to feed it her snack.

Anthony came to visit! Hailey, Anthony and Daddy played on the ipad and Hailey stole Anthony's hat.

Hailey's been "cooking" in her kitchen a lot lately. Here she is one morning making something yummy!

Cute pigtails!

I just can't get over how cute they are!

Hailey decided to be extra fashionable one day and wear two hats in the house.

Little climbing monkey climbed onto the couch to eat her snack.

Shew! There is more, but I think that's enough cuteness for one post.

House Progress

We've still been working away on our little house! We've done a lot of little things, but nothing that seemed worthy of it's own blog post. So, here is a little of what we've been working on.

We hung new blinds on the windows downstairs. We're going to wait on the upstairs for a little while because they don't really need to be replaced like the others did. They really make a big difference in how the rooms look. To us, they look so much cleaner and neater.

We got a new welcome mat for the front door. As you can see, Hailey seems to like it.

The half bath (downstairs) is done! It has been painted and decorated. We painted it a taupe color, a little lighter than the rest of the walls downstairs. We used the mirror that was already in there and just spray painted it black. Then we, well Ryan, spray painted a shelf that we got from my sister and hung it above the toilet. We used a picture and decorations we already had and only bought a new hand towel to match. So, this room was pretty inexpensive to do, minus the paint for the walls.

spray painting the mirror frame

looking to the left from the door

looking to the right above the toilet

We also hung the picture wall in the living room! I was so excited to get this up and get current pictures in it. They're a mix of wedding pictures, Hailey's newborn pictures and one year pictures. I love how it turned out! It really takes up a lot of space on the huge open wall that has the couch on it.

ignore the mess of Hailey's toys

closer up

And one other change that has been fun for me...my sewing table is finally set up! The guest room is nowhere near done, but we finally set up my table so that I could set up the sewing machine.

I gave my machine a workout yesterday since I hadn't been able to use it in so long. I made a lot of new paci clips (only a few were for Hailey, the others were for gifts) and monogrammed two blankets. Lots of fun!

We are constantly working on the house, so I'm sure we'll have more updates soon!

Little Monkey

Hailey is a climber! She now climbs in and on everything that she can. Here are a few pictures of things she has conquered.

The clothes basket...every time I fold clothes. She even climbs in on top of the clothes and hands them to me.

The book basket in her room. I thought it was funny she decided to read a book while she was in there.

And the toy basket

The TV cabinet...on several different occasions

notice the beloved Elmo bib

"What?! You mean I'm not supposed to be in here?"

I already shared this one; her shopping cart

and the stroller for her baby dolls

and my personal favorite, the baby doll cradle that my grandfather made for me and my sisters when we were little. She was telling her babies "night, night" and giving them pats on the back and kisses as she was doing this.

Hailey sure does keep me on my toes! What will she get into next?!

Weekend Review

This weekend was a busy one! It felt super long because we had so much to do and so much going on. All good things, but still tiring none the less.

Friday we did a lot of stuff at the house. Correction, Ryan did a lot of stuff outside at the house. He pressure washed the driveway, walkway and back patio, mowed the grass and did a bunch of yard work. We haven't taken a lot of time on the outside of the house yet, mostly just maintaining what is already here since we're doing so much inside. But Ryan has been wanting to pressure wash the driveway since we moved in and this weekend was the time.

Such a hard working hubby!

Cleaning the outside a little prompted us to put out our new welcome mat too. Someone was very interested in it.

Side note: Friday for lunch I was going to warm up some frozen peas for Hailey and gave her a still frozen one to occupy her while they were cooking and she loved it! So, she had frozen peas at lunch with her grilled cheese and mashed potatoes. I think they helped her teeth to feel better too since she's cutting two molars.

Saturday I was at the women's conference at church all day. It was a wonderful time of learning and worship. This was obviously the first time I've been to the Women's Conference at Providence and am already looking forward to it coming back in two years! I had such a good time worshiping, listening to the speaker (Elizabeth George) and going to the breakout sessions. Everything was so practical!

Ryan stayed with Hailey all day and these are the pictures I got. We have a little monkey on our hands...

sitting on the stroller for her baby dolls

Saturday night we had a cookout with our neighbors that was SO fun. We had met both couples already but it was great to get to share a meal with them. Both couples are right around our age and one has a baby on the way in May. It has been such a blessing to have friendly neighbors and we can't wait to get to know them better.

I posted this picture on Facebook already, but I took it as I was getting ready for church on Sunday morning. We let Hailey watch Praise Baby on the ipad to keep her occupied while Ryan and I were busy.

After church my mom and dad drove up to bring us a bunch of furniture from Mary Katherine's apartment in Atlanta and stuff that they still had at their house from before we moved. It was exciting for them to get to see the house as it is now because they last time they saw it was before we moved in when they came up to help paint. SO much has been done since then.

Grams occupied Hailey and helped me decorate inside and Ryan and my dad worked on stuff outside, getting things unloaded and beginning the process of building shelves for the attic.

Hailey's new toy shelf for her playroom that Grams and Das brought

They also brought a small bounce house for Hailey that belongs to my sister. They got it for my nephews birthday last year but he's too big for it now so Hailey gets to use it for a while. She had a blast! I can't wait to use it a lot this Spring and Summer.

They also brought Hailey a bunch of Elmo things. She LOVES Elmo! It just started the past two weeks. And it's so funny because until she started liking him we hadn't even watch Sesame Street. We just had an app for the ipad that had Elmo on it and she had a few books with him in it. But now Hailey asks for Elmo all the time. As soon as we walk down the stairs in the morning, whenever she sees the ipad, after getting up from a nap...it's cute to see her really want something.

Anyways, my mom brought her two Elmo bibs, pajamas and some books and movies that Tucker had liked. I washed the bibs today and when Hailey saw me folding them she tried to put them on by herself. I put one on her and she said "more" and wanted to wear both. She wore them the rest of the afternoon!

After my parents left we were exhausted! It was a super busy weekend, but such a good one. I wouldn't have wanted to miss any of it!

Hailey Stories and Cuteness

So while I was posting about our trip to Atlanta, I got a little behind on pictures from everyday life. And because I don't want to forget these things here they are...

We play outside A LOT. Several times a day Hailey says "side", which means outside. We walk around the house, pick up sticks and rocks and walk down the street. Earlier this week I took Hailey's baby doll and stroller out with us and she took her on a walk too.

On another day Hailey sat down with her back to me and her book and read it by herself. I guess she didn't want my help.

I gave Hailey a snack in her snack trap the other day. It was Goldfish and yogurt melts. Every time she pulled out a goldfish she threw it on the floor. If she pulled out a yogurt melt she ate it. There was a trail of goldfish around my house...

We had pizza the other night for dinner so I cut a piece up for Hailey. She didn't want to eat her nice, bite-sized pizza. She wanted my full piece. She actually ate it. First she pulled off the toppings, then the cheese and then ate the crust.

Sweet girl before church on Sunday.

When I was getting ready for church the other day I put on a necklace and of course Hailey wanted one. So I found one that she couldn't break or bite apart and gave it to her. She is still playing with it and wearing it 2 days later. A girl after my own heart!

Hailey tipped over her shopping cart today and climbed on top of it. All by herself! (Don't worry, I was right beside her the whole time...until I backed up to take this picture!)

Hailey is obsessed with her bows! I love it! She asks for them all the time, even if she already has one in. Today when she woke up from her nap she asked for a "bow" so I put one in her hair. She then walked over to her bow holder on the wall, pointed to it, and said "mo" (more). So of course I obliged!

Love my sweet girl and her fun little personality!