Growing Up

Hailey amazes me everyday with what she remembers and can do. She is talking SO much and can carry on  a basic conversation with you now. It's incredible!

We were playing in her baby pool the other day and she said, "Dinner. Cook." So I asked, "What are you making for dinner?" Without missing a beat she said "Pancakes." I think that was a hint...

We went to the playground at the church last week as we were running some errands and there was a bee flying near us. Hailey stopped several times and said "Bee. Fly away." She also kept calling this little play set her "porch".

Yesterday morning I picked Hailey up from the nursery after church and she looked at me and said, "Book. Jesus." The nursery worked looked a little surprised and said "Yes we did read a book about Jesus." I am so thankful for a church that teaches my baby about Jesus at an early age. It makes me so happy to know that she is listening and remembers what is being said.

I'm able to keep Hailey awake in the car now by talking to her most days. On the way to church yesterday she went through all of the family that we had seen in Charlotte and made some comment about what she remembered them doing. "Mimi. Pool." "PawPaw. Maggie. Ball."  Then she was having fun putting her feet on the door and saying "Door. Feet. Silly." Her mind is always working!

Quick Weekend Trip

We made a quick trip to Charlotte this weekend to celebrate a few birthdays. Ryan's mom (Mimi) and my dad (Das) both had birthdays this past week and my sister has one in a few weeks.

Hailey only slept for about an hour of our trip (2 and a half hours) so we found fun ways to stay entertained. Daddy let Zoe drive the car...we stuck our gel clings on Daddy instead of our play mat...Hailey figured out how to use a straw to get some of a milkshake.

 Before we got to Mimi's house, we stopped to visit my best friend Jackie and let Hailey meet baby Charley who was born about a month ago. Of course we didn't take a picture until we were getting ready to go and this is how it turned out...

Gotta love little ones!

Then we went to Mimi's house and she took us to the pool! Hailey had a ball throwing her little toys in the pool and getting in after them. She would say, "Elmo. Jump." and then throw him in. Then "Big Bird. Jump." and throw him in. Then "Hannie. Jump." and walk over to the stairs and climb down into the water.

I forgot to take any pictures of our dinner and cake. Needless to say, Hailey loved  the ice cream cake.
Friday night Hailey and I went to my parents house and Ryan stayed with his parents and went to the Wolverine movie. Saturday morning when Hailey woke up early she found a play cell phone in the bonus room at my parents house and said "Talk. Mimi." Apparently she missed her already! Sweet girl.

Mary Katherine and Justin came to Charlotte for the weekend and Julie and Trey brought their boys, Mack and Tucker, over to play for the day too! It was a house full but we had so much fun! I miss being in Charlotte for things like that. I love Raleigh, but I miss being that close to family. I'm so glad we're as close as we are that we can make quick trips!



We had lots of pool fun!

Hailey and Grams

Mary Katheine and Mack

Tucker went down the slide for the first time!

Yay! He was glad MK caught him at the bottom and his head didn't go under.

Ryan took Hailey down the slide. Not a fan.

She enjoyed chilling in the little pool too.

All of the kids took great naps that afternoon and we got a little time to relax in the pool too!

Hailey decided she needed  Mack to give her a ride around the house in the afternoon.

My Dad put tons of meat on the smoker and we had an awesome dinner with ribs and BBQ. Then we hung out, had present time and cobbler for dessert.

Tucker helped Das open his present.

Mary Katherine and Justin. So glad they came for the weekend!

Look! Mack fits in Mary Katherine's new purse!

I love weekends with family!

Zoe

We all know that Hailey loves Elmo. Lately she's started noticing the other characters in Sesame Street too, mostly Cookie Monster. A few weeks ago it was Zoe...she liked her so much that she tore a picture of Zoe out of one of her books and started carrying it around. She would put it in the baby high chair and feed it, put it on the blanket with her other animals and want to hold it and read it books.

Ryan and I just thought the infatuation would pass. Well it didn't. We went to the beach for 2 weeks and didn't bring the paper Zoe and as soon as we got back Hailey started playing with her again. As the paper started to look worse and worse and get misplaced throughout the day (it's about the size of your thumb) I decided we had to get her a real Zoe doll. So we searched Amazon and found one that was cute.

It came yesterday and Hailey LOVES it! She didn't put it down almost at all last night, slept with it and started playing with it immediately this morning. It's precious!

first picture together. Hailey looks a little rough, she had just gotten up from a nap

watching TV...had to have Zoe and Elmo

 This morning Hailey wanted to feed Zoe breakfast in her highchair and I asked her what Zoe wanted and without missing a beat she said "donut".  Her little mind is amazing!

having a picnic this morning

I love it when little things can make her so happy!

"Friends"

I've mentioned several times on here about "Bear", Hailey's lovey that she can't sleep without. Well lately "Bear" has turned into "Hippy" (a hippo),  "Baa Baa" (a sheep), Elmo, Cookie, and George (a stuffed monkey). She wants them all when she goes to bed and plays with all of them during the day.

A few mornings ago, I went to get Hailey out of bed because she had woken up and she wanted to take all of her friends downstairs with her. I was holding one baby and about 6 stuffed animals on my way down the stairs. We sat down on the couch to watch Praise Baby by request and Hailey saw a few more friends in the floor that she wanted to join us. I couldn't fit them all in the picture but this is what I got.

We had: Bear, Hippy, Baa Baa, 2 Cookie Monsters, 2 Elmos, and 2 babies. Talk about a full lap!

This Week

The week after coming home from vacation is always a bummer, isn't it? While it was great to come home and be in our own beds (Hailey has slept GREAT since we've been home, opposite of on vacation) and have familiar things around, it is always kind of a let down because that means things are back to normal. Well, our week has still been busy and fun!

Here are some pictures of my cranky girl on Sunday. She was in a great mood until I got her dressed for church and wanted to take her picture. Stinker. But seriously, these pictures make me laugh. Especially the one on the top right. :)

On Monday my mom, grandmother, aunt and cousin came to visit. They were visiting Charlotte for a few days and drove to Raleigh for a few hours. Hailey got to play with Cailin again, which she loved.

While we were waiting on them to get here Hailey decided some of her toys needed a nap in the cradle.

Not quite, silly girl

precious

Hailey and Cailin

 Before they left to go back to Charlotte, we ran to the Patsy Aiken tent sale here in Raleigh. It just so happened that it was Hailey's nap time and she fell asleep in the car. Granny was a good sport and sat in the car with her so that I could look around. Thanks Granny!

I hate that I didn't get a better picture of Hailey with Granny!

Tuesday we headed to the park for the morning. Hailey insisted on bringing her baby doll with us.

She had a blast swinging with her, taking her down the slide and just playing with her. We stayed at the park pretty much all morning and Hailey took an awesome nap that afternoon!

This week we also started keeping a neighbor's baby so that she could go back to work. It is such an answer to prayer that I can make a little extra money for us while continuing to stay home with Hailey! God provides! We just had a few "adjustment" days this week (more for Hailey than anyone else). We took Abbie on a walk one of the days and Hailey insisted on helping to push the stroller.

Friday we went back to Marbles Kids Museum. We went there a few months ago and Hailey loved it! This time she wasn't as interested in all of the animals in the pretend vet's office. She loved the farm section and playing with the baby dolls in the nursery section.

She sat on this horse and said "trotty" which means to sing the "Ride a little horsey, Go to town..." song. She even fell off at the correct time about 5 times in a row. She just laughed so hard!

We grilled out for dinner that night and Hailey had a blast playing outside while Ryan grilled. She originally had clothes on but started playing in her water table which had rain water in it. I couldn't resist a picture of her little cute diapered self.

She also got to try an ice cream sandwich after dinner. She was a fan!

We had a great first week back from vacation! No slowing down for us!

Holden Beach- Part 2

I promise this will be the last of the vacation posts. There were just so many cute pictures and things that happened in two weeks, I didn't want to leave anything out.

Our attempts at a family picture. They didn't really  turn out too great because some little teething girl wasn't too into it. Notice the fingers in her mouth...all of them were like that.

I had to document the cuteness of her pig tails!

We went to eat ice cream and play putt putt one night after dinner. I just knew Hailey would love the ice cream and probably not care too much about putt putt. I figured she would have fun running around outside but that was about it. I was wrong. She didn't care much about the ice cream (although she ate a great dinner that night, so that may have had something to do with it) and she had a blast at putt putt. Mimi bought her a little plastic golf club and ball and she had fun trying to hit the ball a few times. But she really loved carrying around mine and Ryan's golf balls; so much so that we had to go ask for new ones inside so that she didn't melt down. She also loved running up and down the hill on the first hole.

Hailey with Mimi and Poppi one night before dinner.

Hailey's precious fish outfit.

And this is what happens when you leave the car door open to cool it off before getting in.

I'm thinking this is a glimpse into my future about 15 years from now.

I mentioned that Hailey came to love the water while on vacation...here is proof during her bath time one night. This is now a common sight at bath time. We've gotten her to kick and put her face in the water to blow bubbles.

One last picture. This is Hailey's first "masterpiece". I got/found that I'd never given her lots of new games and things for the car because I knew it would be a long trip. One of the things I got were crayons. Hailey's never really drawn before and is starting to notice us write and ask to "draw" too so I thought it might be something fun.

Other things we used were cling-ons for the window (we used them on a cookie sheet), Goldilocks and the three bears house and stuffed animals, pushing pom poms game, DVDs and new books. All in all she did good in the car, she just needed a lot of entertaining.

We had an awesome vacation and are so blessed to be able to spend the time with our families!

Holden Beach

After our week in Hilton Head, we traveled about 5 hours up the coast to Holden Beach to spend time with Ryan's family.

Hailey didn't like the ocean as much at Holden Beach. The water temperature was a lot colder there, so maybe that was some of it. She still loved playing in the sand and she got to pick up TONS of sea shells.

 Hailey loved standing in all of the beach chairs. I guess it made her feel taller?! Who knows, but she could climb in then and just laugh and laugh.

Here was our beach set-up most days. (Excuse the unflatteringness of this picture, I was eating a snack and so was Hailey, oblivious to the picture taking.)

in her own little chair

with Mimi

One day Ryan and his mom took Hailey on a walk down the beach and came back like this...

I guess the walking wore her out. She slept like that for a good hour.

The house we stay in at Holden Beach is right on the Intercoastal Waterway and Hailey LOVED to go look at the "shish" (fish). She would ask about 20 times a day, no exaggeration, to go outside and look for fish. She loved it when they jumped.

Rebecca (Ryan's sister) tried to paint Hailey's toenails this year, but she would have none of it. This is as far as she got; one toe. Hailey screamed and pulled her feet back. I guess she didn't like that they had to be still.

Rebecca also got Hailey her first pair of rainbow flipflops while we were there. Doesn't she look adorable?

One more picture of my stinker for this post. Hailey was playing with some keys and tried to put them in the door to unlock it...she watches everything!

This was only half...I know, I take a lot of pictures. I promise, only one more beach vacation post...