Just an afternoon outside

We spend many of our afternoons outside these days. I took the opportunity today to practice with the camera. I think I ended up with some good shots. Unfortnately, though, they don't look as good on the blog as they do in real life. You get the idea though.

She threw her raisin box under the bush and forgot that it was there. This is her reaction when she found it again. This picture reminds me that it is still out there. I should really go get it.

This one is very blurry (it happens with a baby on the move). However, it shows how much she loves to "talk" on my phone. She is usually "talking" to daddy while he is at work. She also loves to pretend to dial and then she puts it up to her ear and babbles. It makes me laugh every time.

13 months old!

Haley turned 13 months old today! She is the most amazing, smart girl I know. She is learning new "words" every day and she constantly surprises me with what she has learned. She knows a lot of animal sounds and words and many, many more. Usually, when she says something, she is trying to say a real word and I usually know what she is trying to say. It is so fantastic to watch her grow in intelligence now and not just physical skills. As for the physical aspect, she is walking like a champ and trying to run occasionally. She is starting to carry very large things and walk with them like her heavy toys and her large stuffed animals:

She insists on carrying both of these at the same time. The ladybug is as big as she is and very heavy.

She loves her "doggie", which melts my heart because I had a "gi" (doggie) that I wouldn't put down when I was her age.

Here are her 13 month pictures. I don't have any more "monthday" stickers to put on her clothes, so she is dressed normally.

She was not happy to be sitting in this chair. I only got a few pictures before she got herself down.

Here are a few pictures of her dancing. I didn't have the video on this camera, so I had to snap some pictures. She LOVES to dance, as do all babies. I thought some of these were pretty funny though.

Baby pool playdate

Today, Haley and I went over play with our friends Alima and Aubrey. Aubrey is 6 months old and we have been had a few play dates with him in the last couple of weeks. Haley is just fascinated with him and we always have a good time when we are with the two of them. Aubrey was nice enough to share his pool with Haley. It was nice because it was a bit warm today. However, Haley's very favorite thing to do was get in and out of the pool. She did it over and over for about an hour. I was worn out by the end of our date because I had to help her each time. The biggest problem was that she kept stepping on the side of the pool and draining a lot of the water each time. She definitely had a great time, though, and we will be doing it a lot more while it's hot outside.

My little tiger

I just thought this was cute. We are currently working a lot on our animal recognition and sounds.

Our low-key Easter

Sadly, because of my work schedule, we did NOTHING for Easter. Well, I did get Haley a basket and took some pictures of her looking through it. How depressing? I just keep telling myself that she doesn't understand anyway. Next year will be better, I promise. She seemed to like the things we got her, though. More than anything, she liked the grass that was in there.

Her first look.

Happy girl!


Not happy girl!
I bought Easter ears before I found out that she HATES having things on her head. So, we had to torture her a little bit more. I guess I just keep thinking that maybe she will tolerate it one day. NOPE, not today.

Dada hated them too.

Well, she did tolerate having the Easter grass on her head. I guess it was because she could do it herself. She's very independent.

Fortunately, her grandparents took her out on Saturday to take pretty Easter pics. Some of them were very cute!

She got to try her first Peep. I think she liked it.

Haley's 1 year professional pictures

I just wanted to post the link to Haley's most recent professional pics. I love almost all of them and I have no idea how I'm going to choose just a few. I highly recommend this photographer, Melissa Wells. She's very talented and very sweet.

www.melissawellsphotography.com/galleries/haley

Haley's Ladybug Party!

We threw Haley a 1st birthday party this past Saturday. We went with a ladybug theme because her favorite book has always been Ten Little Ladybugs. I may have gone a little overboard with the black and red, but it was fun and how many 1st birthday parties does a little girl have? We had a great time and I can't thank everyone enough for coming and for all of the help. I had over 300 pictures, so I figured out how to make collages so that I could post more pics at one time.

The invitation:

The sign on the front door:

Decorations:

We served hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, coleslaw, beans and all of this:

The guests:

Haley playing with her precious, 3 month old cousin, Ansley.

Playing in her ball pit.

We found a real ladybug for her to play with.

Showing off her wonderful new walking skills:

Mini photo shoot:

Time to open presents. She got the most wonderful and thoughtful gifts.

Family shot

The cake!! She was very dainty and didn't dig in like we hoped she might.

She HATED her birthday hat!

Playtime after her bath to wash off all of the cake.

Here she is with my Grandfather who turned 92 that day.

Playing in her cozy coupe that her Gigi and Da Daddy gave her. She loved it.

This was my favorite pic of the day (even though it's blurry). It looks like she's dancing!