The Jaquith Family

Just playin' around.

2010-12-18T03:02:00.000-06:00

One night, not too long ago, Haley climbed up into this chair (which she frequently does). We decided that it couldn't hurt to just serve her dinner to her this way. She seemed to love being "big" like momma and dada. She did pretty well eating. We haven't done it again, though, because she really needs to be strapped in or she won't sit there and eat. It was cute for a few pictures while it lasted.

Haley loves to pretend to go "night night". She frequently wants us to do it too. She puts her head down just about anywhere and closes her eyes and pretends to snore saying "ha chew". It's precious and we always laugh. On this day, she decided to do it on our bathroom floor.

Then she jumped up and went upside down. She has so much energy!

My little fireman (or firewoman).

2010-12-18T02:48:00.000-06:00

My sweet girl loves her hat from Firehouse. However, she always wears it backwards. I'm just glad she will wear anything on her head at all. There is hope that she will wear bows one day.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T00:39:00.000-06:00

Our Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful. I had to work the night of Thanksgiving, so we were unable to go out of town and my in-laws were not able to have it at their house this year. Instead, we ended up going to Cracker Barrel with my in-laws (the place was packed that night). We ended up having a great dinner despite having a terrible waitress. Before we went to eat, we stopped by The Summit to attempt family pictures on Santa's sleigh. They have pictures with Santa on the weekends, but we all know that I can't do anything on the weekends. They leave the sleigh outside during the week, so we decided to use it. However, Haley wanted nothing to do with the sleigh. I'm not sure why, but she really didn't want to be on it. We got a few shots before she insisted on getting off. We had my in-laws come meet us there to get some shots of us as a family, but once they got there, Haley wanted nothing to do with her momma and dada and only wanted to be held by Gigi and Da Daddy. I still ended up with almost 100 good pictures from the shoot, so it wasn't a complete failure. Here are some of my favorites.

The most decent pic I got of her on the sleigh. Too bad Scott's arm was behind her.

This is a good picture of her hair. It is getting the longest right on the crown and it is curly. Most of the time it is just unruly. It's almost tragic. I hope it gets better soon.

This was her reaction when she saw Gigi and Da Daddy get out of the car.

She was literally jumping out of Scott's arms.

She adores them!

I think they adore her too.

This was the best shot we were able to get on the sleigh. She really did not want to be with us.

So, we let her down and took some of just us.

Her War Eagle because the Iron Bowl was the next day and because we just always make her do this.

The Jaquiths minus Philip. We sure miss him!

She was obsessed with the water fountain until we realized there were nasty cigarette butts floating in it. How nice!

Our second attempt at a family shot on the sleigh. It didn't happen.

She was dying to "ride" this iron dog.

Our best family shot. I'm just glad we got something.

Dear Santa,

2010-11-28T05:44:00.000-06:00

Last week, on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I got the brilliant idea to take Haley to the get her picture taken at the Bass Pro Shop. I have heard great things about getting Santa pictures there. Not only is the picture free, but there is a lot of stuff for the kids to do while waiting to see Santa. Well, I neglected to think about the fact that a whole lot of people were going to be off the next day and all of the kids were out of school, so the line was quite long to say the least. That was ok, though, because Haley had a great time going around the store to look at everything and then playing with all of the stuff they had out for the kids. She wasn't overly thrilled with the whole Santa part of it, but she had a great time with everything else. We got some good pictures. I haven't scanned the actual picture that they gave us, but it turned out really well and like I said, it was free!

Hanging out with Dada before we left. I love that they are sitting alike.

Coloring.

She loved the trains.

She was also pretty excited about the giant checkers.

She was NOT happy when we made her leave the toys in order to go see Santa. She actually threw herself on the floor and cried. I know she was completely clueless about why she had to go sit on this man's lap.

Not at all thrilled.

She tolerated his lap for about 30 seconds before she was squirming to get down. Fortunately, she never screamed or cried while in his lap.

The Santa was so sweet, though, and tried to pick her back up and hold her again to make sure that I got the pictures that I needed.

She did love the candy cane they gave her at the end.

We finished up the evening checking out bears...

...and fish. There was so much to see at this place.

For some reason, when she is playing with Scott, she thinks it's fun to try and beat him up.

Dum Dum

2010-11-07T02:21:00.000-06:00

We got a little bit of candy when Haley went trick or treating last week. I didn't let her get a lot because I knew she couldn't eat much of it and we didn't need all of that candy. Well, her daddy decided that she didn't really need to have any of it, so he devoured all of it THAT SAME NIGHT! I couldn't believe it when I came home to find that it was all gone except for the Dum Dum sucker that I made sure we get so Haley could try it. I would have liked some of the candy too. Oh well!

So, of course, I had to make a photo shoot out of Haley's first sucker experience. However, she was so good at eating it and knew exactly what to do with it that I think she has probably had one before :). It's no big deal, but I just thought it was the first one.

She really enjoyed it and was sad when it was "ah gun" (all gone).

Leaves, leaves everywhere!

2010-11-03T22:14:00.001-05:00

This past Saturday, Scott took Haley over to her Gigi and Da Daddy's house where she played in the leaves. He took all of these and I think he got some good shots. She had such a great time.

Boo at the Zoo

2010-11-03T22:02:00.000-05:00

On Sunday night, I was able to get a few hours off of work to do something with Haley. So, Scott and I took her to Boo at the Zoo. It was pretty crowded, but she seemed to really enjoy it. All we really got to do was ride the train and the carousel, but those were the things she really wanted to do. I was just glad that I got to spend some time with her on Halloween.

She did some trick or treating there. It took her a second to get the concept, but it wasn't long at all before she was begging for more.

For the rest of the night, all she wanted to do was stick her hand down in her bucket and play with the candy.

Riding the "och ich".

She looks miserable, but she LOVED it!

Mommy's Munchkins are all dressed up.

2010-10-30T04:58:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in the last post, our mommy and me group (Mommy's Munchkins) had a dress-up play date on Thursday. Haley had a great time playing with all of the kids and seeing them dressed up. We both had a great time.

This is the reaction I expected when I put her hood on.

Another little girl was dressed like a ladybug too. They were very cute together.

Shirley, the hostess, was begging her daughter Ellie to put on her costume. It never happened.

Carson was an adorable little dog.

Barbara and Jack.

Brennan the football player. Too bad it's for that OTHER team.

A bunch of the little ones ready to fight over a piece of cookie cake.

Hayden the fairy. She was too cute.

Haley is a Beesa!

2010-10-30T04:37:00.000-05:00

When Haley was younger, she couldn't say the word ladybug, but for some reason, pronounced it "beesa". I fell in love with the word. Now anytime Scott tries to teach her how to say ladybug, I tell him to be quite and not even say the real word. I know this could be damaging to her, but she is a smart girl and I truly feel that she will learn the truth one day and it won't matter. For now, she is a "beesa" and a very cute one at that. Our mommy group had a Halloween costume party on Thursday so I got her all dressed up and we went outside for some pictures before heading over. She actually tolerated the hood for about 10 minutes. I was thrilled. Thanks, Mimi, for the adorable costume!!

Tutu cute!

2010-10-09T01:57:00.000-05:00

Haley played ball with her Dada yesterday. She had the best time as he threw the ball to her and up in the air. She got such a kick out of seeing it go way up in the air and then fall down and bounce. Dada is always so much fun!

Her expression is priceless as she tries to catch the ball.

Watching the ball go way up in the air.

Trying to throw the ball. It may have gone in the wrong direction.

Her Gigi bought her these cute little pajamas. They came with a tutu, so I had to put it on her and get pictures. I was worried that she may hate it because she hates some of the strangest things (like wearing hats or sunglasses), but she didn't seem to even notice that she was wearing it. Thank goodness because she owns a few tutus and I would love to see her playing with them.

Drinking her nightly ba ba with Dada.

This was one of the only ways I could get her to be still for me to get a full length shot. We told her to look for airplanes outside (even though it was dark out).

"Vacuuming" in her tutu. We should all do that to make it more fun!

Happy Birthday Da Daddy!

2010-10-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

Today was Haley's grandfather's birthday. Unfortunately, he is out of town for work, so we couldn't celebrate with him. So, Haley and I did a little photo shoot to send him a special birthday wish. Here were my favorites.

She was not in the best mood and didn't want to hold the sign even for her Da Daddy.

So, I told her to read it like a book.

In this one, she is saying "A, B, C".

We had to get a little help from Dada when he got home from work.

We love you Da Daddy!! We hope you had a wonderful birthday. We hate that we weren't there to spend the day with you.

A girl after my heart!

2010-10-06T22:32:00.000-05:00

Today, she picked up my point and shoot camera and started doing this!! I could not help but get very excited. I really hope she loves photography as much as I do. Oh the possibilites...

I recently taught her how to "swipe it". She puts our old cards in her etch-a-sketch slot, moves it back and forth, and says, "sipe eet". I know it's awful, but it sure is cute! I have a feeling that I will regret this a whole lot one day.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-09-30T23:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, we went to a local pumpkin patch to get our pumpkins for the season. We all got to pick out our own pumpkins. We had such a good time hanging out as a family because we rarely get to do things like this together. I, of course, took a million pictures. Here are just a few of my favorites :).

Looking at "Ae muls" (animals) and airplanes. She is obsessed with watching airplanes fly across the sky. She knows that her Da Daddy flies planes and so she always says, "Da Daddy airplane bye bye" all in one breath.

The hayride to the pumpkin patch. We were told to all stay seated at all times. That was not so easy with such an active little girl who does not understand what stay seated means.

I wanted a white one and Scott picked out an orange one for Haley. However, Haley very much wanted the white one for herself. I told her she was more than welcomed to trade with me.

Of course, Haley had to find a place to pick up rocks. She cracks me up.

They had a little petting zoo. She had such a blast looking at all of the "Ae muls" we talk about all of the time (ducks, chickens, bunnies, cows, etc.).

She was a little scared of the real bunny.

This was her reaction when we told her we had to leave.

Trying to pick up and move her pumpkin. It's pretty heavy. She managed to move it a few feet, though. She is a very determined little girl.

We LOVE this weather!

2010-09-30T21:11:00.000-05:00

The weather has been so fantastic lately. We had a great day outside two days ago. We started out at the park. Haley had such a good time playing on the playground. Her absolute favorite thing to do is climb up and down any stairs that she can find. She is learning to count and every time she goes up and down stairs she says, "un, two, tree, oar" (one, two, three, four). It's the cutest thing. We are going to spend as much time outside as we can before it gets too cold!

Playing peek-a-boo with some people.

She found a Mickey ball and was so excited!!

Kicking the ball. Or "keek" as she says.

Trying to pick up all of her favorite things at once.

She loves to help me around the house.

We had to go look for rocks.

We hope everyone else is enjoying the weather like we are!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!

2010-09-29T00:49:00.000-05:00

Haley has become OBSESSED with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show. All she does, all day, is ask me to watch "Mickey". She cries when I tell her that it's mommy's turn to watch tv (which is terrible too). I really don't want her to watch tv at all. It was very much a surprise to me when she really started showing an interest in it. She has never watched tv for more than a few minutes until recently. However, I must say that it comes in very handy when I need to get things done (or sleep on Fridays before work).

Watching Mickey with her friends.

She loves to climb. I hate it.

Pajama time

2010-09-28T23:34:00.001-05:00

I love these jammies :).

So silly.

Bad girl, AGAIN. She loves to climb on chairs. She always looks over at me to see if it's ok. It never is.

Watching tv.

Watching Auburn football on the DVR with dada.

Saying "Weegle".

She then found this jewelry catalog and loved looking at all the pretty things.

Doing a puzzles. One of her favorite things!

Cheese!

Beads! This girl loves her fake jewelry.

Haley's little chair

2010-09-28T23:16:00.000-05:00

I recently got Haley this little chair at a consignment sale. I knew that she needed something just her size. However, sadly, she has not liked it as much as I thought she would. She would much prefer to sit on the couch or one of the big leather chairs than this one. Oh well, I hope she'll love it at the beach next year. However, I did get some good pics of her in playing with it outside the other day.

Bad girl!! When she does this, I look at her disapprovingly and she says "Seet. Goo gur" (Sit. Good girl). I've had to tell her to sit too many times and when she does, I tell her "good girl".

Aubrey is turning one!

2010-09-19T23:05:00.000-05:00

Haley's friend, Aubrey, had his first birthday party yesterday. I was able to get Friday night off so that we could go celebrate. I'm officially back to working full time (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights). It is a financial must, but I am not at all happy about it. Anyway, Haley had a blast at the party and I'm so glad we got to celebrate the birthday of such a handsome little boy!

Haley with some of the kids at the sand/water table (Aubrey is the one with his back to the camera). She absolutely loved the table and within 5 minutes of getting out there, had completely soaked herself from head to toe. She probably drenched everyone else too. I know better than to turn my back for a second.

Running through the bubbles. Alima, Aubrey's mom, had a bubble machine that was a huge hit with the kids.

You can kind of see how wet she was in this one.

More bubble fun.

Thanks for having us guys. We had a blast!

War Eagle (again).

2010-09-19T22:52:00.000-05:00

I know I have posted a million times about Auburn stuff, but it never gets old to me. Haley is finally able to say "A-bun" and "weegle" and she throws her arms up when I say War Eagle. Here she is in her Auburn pajamas.

Snuggle time with dada.

She has been able to climb on the back of the couch, but she never seemed to notice the ledge above it. Until now. We used to put anything we wanted to keep out of her reach up on that ledge (tv remotes, cell phones, papers, drinks). We won't be able to do that anymore. Our little girl loves to climb and get into things that she's not supposed to. I just hope her crib isn't next.

Here she is in her cute new Auburn dress. She's was so serious while I was trying to get her pics. I couldn't get a smile out of her.

War Eagle!

2010-09-07T15:28:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again. Haley enjoyed her first game of the season. I had to work, so I missed it, but I hear she had a blast with all of the people Scott had over. She even learned to say Auburn and Weegle (War Eagle).

Haley's new trick

2010-08-29T03:14:00.000-05:00

Recently, Haley learned how to climb up on the back of the couch and turn the overhead light on and off. I didn't really object because she had so much fun doing it and it didn't seem that dangerous. I did have to object when she decided that it was a ton of fun to dive head first back onto the couch.

Playing with daddy

2010-08-29T02:54:00.000-05:00

This is how she came out of the door to go play. Notice that she is looking down. She instantly searches for her two, small rocks that we keep right by the door. Anytime we are outside, she has to carry around her rocks. We leave them by the door each time we finish playing. She has them in her hands in almost all of these pictures.

Silly girl!!

Photo session at the Botanical Gardens

2010-08-29T01:36:00.004-05:00

I took Haley out to the Botanical Gardens the other day for a little photo shoot. I was a little discouraged when we left because I didn't think that I got any good shots, but I got more than I thought. She was so busy playing in the water, climbing any stairs she could find, and running up and down the hill to bother looking in my direction. It is not easy to photograph a VERY busy 17 month old. Here are some of the best ones (out of the 187 that I took). She was full of expressions through the whole thing.

She won't actually wear the sunglasses, but she loves to play with them and keep them around her neck.

She was very tired by the end.

My attempts at photography (part 1)

2010-08-01T06:03:00.006-05:00

Thanks to my wonderful mother-in-law, I am taking a photography class that focuses on photographing babies and children. I am loving it so far and hope to learn some things that I can use on Haley and any future children. These are all pictures that I took as my first homework assignment. There are bunches here and even more that I didn't post.

My attempts at photography (part 2)

2010-08-01T05:31:00.008-05:00

All of these pictures are taken with my new 50mm lens. I'm in love with this lens!!

Haley lately

2010-08-01T03:44:00.007-05:00

Here are some recent pics of what Haley has been up to these days. She's growing up too fast.

She loves to look at us through this ball.

She is having a serious conversation with her Ah Eh (Aunt Erin).

She can't believe what Ah Eh just told her.

I think she is looking for something to wear.

With her beads, popper (she thinks this is a vacuum), her dada's brush and flosser stick thing (in her mouth).

I always give Haley a bag of links to play with in the car. I found her like this the other day. She put all of them on all by herself. I cracked up when I found her. She loves to wear things like bracelets.

She loves to try and get in her stroller and loves it even more when I push her around in it.

After a while of wearing the beads, she tries to take them off and always gets them tangled. That leads to frustration every time.

Feeding her baby a ba ba.

Kissing her baby.

Thank you Mimi and Pop

2010-08-01T03:17:00.002-05:00

Haley's Mimi sent Haley some beautiful new dresses in the mail. Here is a video of her saying thank you (pronounced dee doo).

McWane your brain!

2010-07-09T23:14:00.007-05:00

Last week, Scott had Friday off, so we took Haley to the McWane Science Center for the first time. I've been dying to take her, but really wanted Scott to go with us. So, we finally got the chance to go. Haley had a great time playing with everything that she saw and we had a great time watching her explore. Most of it was too advanced for her age, but she had a great time anyway. We will definitely be doing this a lot more. I feel sure that I will get a membership for her 2nd birthday.

A couch that is just her size.

Dada was getting her with the air that blows out of the hose. She loved it.

She had the best time with the giant Lite Bright. She really liked taking all of the sticks out and throwing them on the floor.

Her absolute favorite part was getting to drink from the water fountains. They had them near the elevators and so we had to stop each time we saw one, which was a whole lot of times.

She was fascinated by the fish in the tank.

Crocs and beads!

2010-07-09T23:04:00.005-05:00

Haley is obsessed with her crocs. She spends a lot of time each day trying so hard to put them on. I always have to help, and then she wears them all over. Here are some future blackmail pictures of her wearing the crocs with her Auburn mardi gras beads.

Gobble gobble!

2010-07-09T22:37:00.004-05:00

Well, it's not Thanksgiving yet, but we did get to see some baby turkeys last week (I'll explain in a bit). We went to Memphis for the week to visit Mimi, Pop, and Uncle Blake. We had a fantastic time as usual. Haley took to her Mimi and Pop like she sees them all of the time. She was even able to say "Mimi" and she tried her best to say Pop a few times, but it came out in an almost whisper. They have two sweet dogs and Haley LOVES dogs, so that was the highlight of her trip. One is a small yorkie poo and the other is a huge golden retriever. She was fascinated by the retriever, but scared of him when he came over to try and give her kisses. She loved Jingle, the yorkie poo, and even started saying "Jee dul" over and over. One of her favorite things to do is touch noses (people, pictures, animals), so she loved that Jingle was small and gentle enough that she could touch his nose any time.

To Haley's right are the two baby turkeys. My brother and a friend decided that they wanted to get a baby turkey each and raise them. I'm not sure why, but they are 17 and that is the kind of thing you do when you are 17. They are very cute and seem pretty easy to care for.

At first, she was ok with them. Then she decided that they were scary and she started to cry.

Mimi took care of it, though and all was better.

She was better once Mimi was holding her.

Here is Haley with her Uncle Blake. They were dressing up in beads and even putting beads on Benjamin (the dog).

Cracking up at her Uncle Blake who is a little scary, but very funny at the same time.

Here she is with Dada once we got home from Memphis. She missed him so much while we were gone.

Splash Pad fun

2010-06-18T20:54:00.003-05:00

Well, it's been a while since I last posted, but I haven't taken many pictures lately. Last week, we went to Lanett, AL so Haley could meet my late grandfather's widow. Haley was named after this grandfather and his widow lives in the house that I spent a lot of time in while I was growing up, so this was a very special trip. We had a great lunch with her and had a great visit. Sadly, though, I didn't take any pictures. I'm kicking myself over that mistake. We also went the funeral of my Great Aunt Betty. That was sad, but we really enjoyed seeing a lot of family that Haley has not ever met. So, Haley was on the road a lot last week and really did a great job. She did have a bad night one night which made us realize that she was cutting all of her molars. Poor baby. She did remarkably well considering that she must have been in a lot of pain. Fortunately, it was only one night that was bad and she quickly got back to her normal self.

This week, we ran a lot of errands. We did do something fun yesterday, though. We went up to Gardendale to a park that has an area called the Splash Pad. It's just a big concrete slab with some water features in it for the kids to play with. Haley really liked it until a very large boy ran into her and knocked her over. He, of course, walked away and she started screaming because she scraped up her hand and foot. I guess I need to get used to that kind of thing because I know it won't be the last time. It was just very hard for me. She was really tired at that point, so she was ready to leave. Sadly, it takes almost an hour to get there and we only stayed for about 30 minutes. As nice as it was, I don't know when we will go back because it's so far away. Here are some pictures of it, though.

She is carrying her sippy cup and my huge, heavy jug of water. She wouldn't put them down and if I tried to get them away from her, she would scream and cry. Whatever floats her boat, I guess.

Today, we went to the zoo with the intention of playing in the fountains, but they were down for repairs. Of course, it was one of the hottest days yet and because it is so far from our house, I didn't want to go home. So, we actually walked around looking at the animals. It was fun and Haley enjoyed it, but boy was it hot!! She again insisted upon carrying around her sippy cup and my full water bottle the whole time. She is so strong. I'm not sure what this obsession is all about, however. It seems like it would be a lot less trouble to do things without working so hard. I have realized that I can't take any water for myself because she will see it and pitch a fit if she can't carry it. That's going to make for some hot days for me.

4 years ago...

2010-06-03T18:02:00.005-05:00

...I married my best friend. I adore him and I'm so grateful for him every day. He is a wonderful husband and a terrific father. 4 years ago was such a wonderful day. We had so much fun celebrating with our family and friends. We couldn't have asked for a better day. Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband!

And out of our blessed union, came the biggest blessing of all:

We couldn't love anyone more!

Today, Haley and I went to the zoo with our friends, Shirley and Ellie. Haley played in the lily pads for the first time and had a blast. Aren't the girls adorable together? Ellie is only a few weeks younger than Haley and is an absolute sweetheart. We had a great time with them today.

Memorial Day trip to Yogurt Mountain

2010-06-02T21:09:00.003-05:00

On Monday, we took Haley out for her first frozen yogurt. She was a little unsure of it at first. I think she was very confused because she has yogurt at home all of the time and we told her that she was getting yogurt. However, this time it was very cold and a lot sweeter. She quickly got used to it and liked it. It was a fun treat for all of us!

14 months old

2010-05-27T20:33:00.006-05:00

Yesterday, Haley turned 14 months old. She continues to amaze me and she gets smarter every day. Her "vocabulary" is improving daily. She can say (or attempt to say) more words than I can list. I love that I can understand what she is trying to say these days. I would have to translate her words to a normal person, but I know what she's saying. She makes me laugh constantly and I cherish every moment I have with her. We always have a blast together!

It started raining/pouring yesterday while we were outside playing. I started to take her inside, but I wanted her to see the rain first. I let her down to see what she would do. She walked out in it and I thought for sure that she would run back to me. Instead, she stayed out there. She loved it and stayed out in it forever. She was drenched by the time I forced her to go inside. I wish I could feel that free.

Playing with the water from the downspout.

Today, we tried to play in the sprinkler. I thought that after playing in the rain yesterday and loving it so much that she would love it. No such luck! She didn't care for it at all. I was really hoping this would be another fun way to beat the heat. We'll just have to keep trying until she understands that it is fun.

I did get her to enjoy her swing, though. For the last few months, she has refused to swing at the playground or in the swing that she got for her birthday. Today she really liked it! I'm so glad because everyone knows how fun it is to swing. I even got on the swing beside her and she seemed to love it that we could swing together. At one point, I thought she was going to fall asleep in her swing. I just had to keep hosing her off to keep her cool. It was very HOT today! Now she points to her swing and says "swee". I think it's a combo word for swing and wee because I kept saying "wee, wee" as we were swinging. She also loved the slide on the swing set. I hosed it down too because the plastic was getting hot in the sun. I helped her slide over and over until I was just too tired to do it anymore. She SCREAMED when I made her go inside.

This afternoon, I broke out the sidewalk chalk. Scott has been dying to do this with her, but I was in need of something new to do outside after she had a major breakdown, so I pulled it out. She got excited at first, but didn't really understand what it was all about. She tried a few times to draw, but kept getting distracted by cars which she calls "beep beeps". After trying to play with the chalk for a few minutes, she decided that it was more fun to throw it on the driveway and watch it roll. I then had to put it away.

Here she is trying to bring me a dead flower that she found. She is very excited to have found such a treasure. I probably should have let her keep the chalk. (Please excuse her bloomers. The elastic is broken in them so they were falling off.)

Today was a lot like the others

2010-05-20T19:58:00.004-05:00

So, I won't bore you with tons of the same old stuff. We did pretty much the same stuff today that we have been doing. However, we did go on a nature walk today instead of going to the playground. It was short but very pretty. We hit the beach again today and Haley made lots of friends, as usual. She also found a new hobby - bird watching. She was fascinated by a few birds the were flying around trying to find food. She kept pointing at them saying "duh duh" which normally means duck. We kept trying to correct her and get her to say "birdie" or "tweet tweet", but that was too much. So, we will call them ducks for now. After a second nap and Haley's dinner, she and I went down to the grill area to watch da da grill some Mahi mahi for us. We had a low key but very nice day.

Another nice person stopped to take a family photo of us, so we couldn't say "no".

Our footprints in the sand.

The best day!!

2010-05-20T10:32:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was the best day! We started it out by going to the playground and then the pool. After Haley's nap and lunchtime, we went back over to the beach. Haley had a fantastic time at the beach again today. We found the perfect spot close to the water that had a little pool for Haley to play in without being right in the ocean. She quickly realized that our beach chairs make a perfect playground. One of us had to be standing up from then on so she could play on our chair. She would scream and pull on us if we were sitting and didn't let her get in the chair. After the beach, Haley was ready for another good nap and some dinner. Scott and I had seafood pizzas from a local pizza place and they were SOOO good. Then we went back over to the beach for a little photo shoot (momma's favorite thing to do). When we came back to the village, an outside concert was going on so we let Haley socialize and dance a bit before bedtime. I couldn't have asked for a better time with my two favorite people in the whole world.

She makes friends everywhere we go.

Beach bums!

2010-05-18T20:21:00.009-05:00

Haley and I started out the morning by going to this playground that is just steps from our room. Haley had the best time climbing and sliding and walking all over. I have a feeling we will be doing this every morning.

After her morning nap and some lunch, we made the trip across the highway to the beach. This is the main down side of where we are staying (that the beach is so far away). It's worth it, though, to have all of the other stuff so close to us. Well, based on past beach trips, I thought that Haley wouldn't care a thing about the beach or the sand. In the past, she has hated to have her feet in the ocean and the heat and sun just made her cranky. This time was totally different. She LOVED the ocean. We couldn't get her to go back under the umbrella for anything. Thank goodness we coated her down with sunscreen. She also wouldn't wear her hat no matter how much I begged her. We really had the best time with her.

We put a sheet down for her to sit on, but she just thought it would be better with sand all over it.

The last time she experienced the ocean, she was just a little more than 6 months old. She hated it. It's amazing how much has changed since then. This was her reaction when we put her in this time.

Jumping the waves with da da.

While we were playing, a little boy about her age walked by with his grandparents. She instantly made friends with him. They just looked at each other and pointed for several minutes.

He even tried to kiss her. Boy are we in trouble!

Family shot. A sweet man that was sitting on the beach near us saw that we were taking pictures and offered to get the three of us together. So nice!!

Please notice the look of determination on her face. She was obsessed with getting a handful of sand from the bucket and walking to the water's edge to throw it back in.

Handing sand to da da.

Not only is this a picture of her new hilarious face that she makes, but it shows the creative way that we are having to feed her since we couldn't fit the booster seat in the car. She loves eating this way because she can take a bite and then run all over and come back for a bite when she is ready. I doubt that we will be able to get her to sit in a highchair ever again. It is very messy, though, but it's not our house, right?

The next three pictures are in the little town right outside of our door. We love it here and have taken a nice walk each evening.

Haley finally figured out how to use the remote and point it at the TV. Thank goodness because da da was watching basketball and momma wanted to watch anything but basketball.

On our way! Beach bound.

2010-05-18T11:22:00.007-05:00

Yesterday, we left our house and traveled down to Sandestin. Haley has been to the beach twice before with me, but we have never done a beach trip with daddy. Scott and I are so excited to be able to do this and we can't wait to see how Haley will like everything this time around.

Getting ready to leave. She has no idea what fun we are about to have.

She's ready to get in the car and go bye-bye. "Buh bye" is her absolute favorite thing to say right now. She says it constantly when anyone leaves her site.

She is wondering how she is going to fit in there with all of our stuff. We are staying for 5 days, so we have tons of stuff in my not-so-big Accord.

We were packed a little tight. We had to leave a few things behind including her booster seat. We are going to have to be creative when we feed her.

It's like she is saying, "You expect me to ride like this?"

Checking out our condo.

Our condo.

This is our deck view. It's hard to see, but that's a view of the pool. We are staying on the bay side, so we don't have an ocean view. However, there is a little town just steps from our room that has all kinds of shopping, restaurants, and a big playground for kids. It's a fantastic place to stay for a family!

Here she is making friends at the baby pool. She is absolutely a social butterfly. She makes friends anywhere and everywhere we go.

Her favorite pool game is in-and-out. It's very tiring for me.

She started doing this just moments before this picture and kept doing it over and over. I think it's a new sign that she's tired.

We went down to walk around the town and found this fountain. She thought it was hilarious to put her feet in it.

We are going to beat the heat this summer

2010-05-13T22:29:00.004-05:00

I have a feeling that Haley and I will be living in her kiddie pool this summer. Today, we used it for the first time and we didn't even notice how hot it really got. It was so nice, that once I put Haley down for her nap, I went and got back in it for a bit. She loved it too and I'm so glad.

She was dancing in this one.

She loves to drink the water for some reason.

It's like she was saying "ahhh" after taking a drink.

More drinking.

I told her not to drink it after the first time, so she looked guilty when I caught her doing it again.

I love this pool!!

Mother's Day

2010-05-10T21:24:00.005-05:00

Well, I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time with my sweet girl on Mother's Day because of work/sleeping, but she did make me this AMAZING present. I can't tell you how priceless this gift is to me. It brought me to tears.

While I slept, Haley went to the Birmingham Zoo with her Gigi and her daddy. They rode the train and the carousel. The weather was perfect and they had a great time.

Then her Gigi took her to the Botanical Gardens and got some pictures with her in her fancy dresses.

"Talking" on her phone.

She had a great day!

The Memphis Zoo

2010-05-10T20:46:00.005-05:00

This past week, Haley and I traveled up to Memphis to visit her Mimi, Pop and Uncle Blake. We had a terrific time, as usual. Haley is always so entertaining and loves the attention that she gets from the whole family. On Wednesday, we braved the heat and went to the Memphis Zoo. It is quite different from the Birmingham Zoo. We were there for a few hours, and only scratched the surface of all there is to do there. We loved every minute of it, though. We saw monkeys, gorillas, polar bears, wolves, panda bears, elephants and several other things. We can't wait to go back to see all that we missed.

Showing Pop the monkeys.

This monkey gave us a close-up look.

Pop, Mimi and Haley looking at some monkeys.

Watching a monkey.

Great Aunt Sandra, Mimi, me, Haley and Pop outside of the Teton Trek that housed the polar bears, seals, wolves and elk.

All of us with Haley's Great Aunt Madeline.

Haley's first time seeing elephants. She loves to try and sound like the elephants by putting her lips together and blowing (kind of like a raspberry noise).

Pop was trying to imitate an elephant.

Just an afternoon outside

2010-04-29T21:12:00.004-05:00

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!

2010-04-26T21:12:00.008-05:00

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

2010-04-23T20:54:00.004-05:00

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

2010-04-09T20:58:00.002-05:00

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

Our low-key Easter

2010-04-06T21:36:00.007-05:00

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

2010-04-02T09:54:00.007-05:00

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!

2010-04-01T20:27:00.021-05:00

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!

12 month pictures and stats

2010-03-31T21:26:00.004-05:00

Haley turned 1 last Friday, so I took her normal monthly pictures. We went to the doctor yesterday and she weighed 19 lbs 3 oz (25th percentile) and was 29.5 inches (75th percentile). She is walking like crazy now and trying to say several words. She is more fun than I can even express in words. We love our little girl!! We had her party this past Saturday and I will post those pics very soon. It's going to take me a while to pick only a few to post.

She started to get a little tired of the photo shoot.

She finally had enough!

Happy St. Patty's Day

2010-03-18T21:04:00.004-05:00

Here is my attempt at getting some cute St. Patrick's Day pics of Haley. As you can see, it did not go as planned.

I brought the headband in and then tried to get the settings right on the camera. As soon as she saw the headband, she looked at me like she was saying "You are not going to put that on me!"

Then she did the sideways glance to see if it was still there.

As soon as I put it on, she started to freak out! She HATES to have anything on her head. She really gets very upset.

Look at those tears. I felt terrible, but I had to get some pictures and I was hoping that she would quickly forget that it was on her head.

What a pitiful face!

This was the last one. I tortured her for long enough. Maybe she was just upset that I forgot to put her in something green and the headband didn't match. You would think someone had just pinched her for real.

Almost there! (possible video overload)

2010-03-09T21:05:00.002-06:00

I apologize for all of the videos, but we have had a great week and I have been able to catch some of it on video.

Most importantly, Haley is finally starting to walk a lot more. I would say that starting today, she has started walking 1/3 of the time. I have a silly idea in my head that she must be walking by her first birthday (in less than 3 weeks). I know I'm ridiculous to have such a "plan", but it those of you who know me well know that I always try to plan everything. I'm not at all spontaneous. Having her walk by her birthday would be so nice for several reasons: it will be outside, she will be in a dress (I worry about her knees), and the pictures will be cuter. How silly is that? I know! I just have it set in my mind that this MUST happen. So, the countdown is on. I really think it can happen by then with her walking as much as she has today. Sadly, though, I'm afraid that I will eat my words once it finally happens. I really think that it will open up a whole new world for us for her to be walking. Right now, she can't have as much fun outside while crawling (like at the park or our backyard). She has to be in old pants that can be dirty or worn and old shoes that can get scuffed. She can't wear dresses without getting tripped up on them when crawling. OK, enough of my reasoning. Here is the video!

Please excuse the fact that she is in her Christmas pajamas in March. I promise that we have tons of PJs, but these still fit and Scott just happened to pull them out tonight even though I put them in the "to go in the attic drawer". I guess it will always make for a funny story.

Here she is doing her "Indian" (that is not at all PC, but that's what we called it when I was a kid). I didn't really capture it tonight, but she normally has a blast doing this.

Here she is having fun with her ball popper. She gets such a kick out of it. She can now put balls back in it after they have "popped" out. She can sometimes push the lever to make it start, but most of the time needs help. She just gets so excited when it starts up which is the best part for us both.

11 months old

2010-03-02T16:57:00.004-06:00

Haley turned 11 months old this past Friday. Here are some of her month-day pictures that I thought were funny. I still can't believe she will be a year old in less than a month. She's growing up way too fast.

She's such a wonderful baby. She sleeps well, eats fairly well, and is pretty much happy all of the time. She has 5 teeth now. Knock on wood, she has handled teething very well. I really can't tell when she is getting them until they appear. She is still not yet walking. She is showing a lot of interest, though, and usually has one episode a day where she takes multiple steps before falling. I keep thinking that it will happen any day now. No hurry though. Right now, I'm just loving every moment with her and trying not to wish time away.

Our return to the park

2010-02-19T22:11:00.017-06:00

We finally had warm enough weather to go to the park today. I knew that we wouldn't be able to do much because she is not yet walking. I really just wanted to get outside and see if she would like the swings. When we got there, there were only a few people there and she instantly made friends with a little girl.

After letting her crawl around a little bit, she decided that she didn't like having the dirt on her hands, so we went over to the baby swing. She was much happier.

She really enjoyed the swing.

I love comparisons (I wish I could put them side-by-side on here). So, here she was today (almost 11 months old).

And here she was on Sept. 4, 2009 (a little over 5 months old)

My favorite pic of the day.

Her serious pose.

Valentine's Day with my LOVE(s).

2010-02-16T20:34:00.004-06:00

I was so excited that Valentine's Day was on a Sunday this year because it meant that Scott was home and we could all have breakfast together. I got Scott to make Haley some heart-shaped pancakes. She has only had pancakes once before, at Christmas, and she loved them then. We put a little syrup on them this time and she devoured them. We had a great breakfast together before I had to go to sleep so that I could work that night.

Haley in her Valentine's Day outfit.

My sweet Valentine.

She started out taking dainty, little bites...

...then just dug right in.

So delicious!

Real snow this time

2010-02-12T17:47:00.007-06:00

Well, this time we had some real snow accumulation. I took Haley out around lunch and she tolerated the cold for a minute. She then got really upset for some reason, so we went back inside. I decided to wait until Scott got home to try and take her back out for more pictures. She liked watching the snow from the windows though.

This is her reaction when we first went out.

I tried to put her on a piece of plastic to keep her dry, but she wanted no part of that and instantly moved off of it.

I think her hands got too cold because she got really upset.

She got very upset that I was outside without her!

Daddy finally came home from work and took her out to play.

She loved hearing daddy crunch through the snow.

Scott thought she needed to try to eat some snow. She didn't love it.

Here is a video of her trying to say "kitty". She gets really into it. The poor cats think she is hissing at them and it scares them even more than her chasing after them. We think it's hilarious though.

One bug after another

2010-02-09T20:44:00.005-06:00

Haley has been going through a lot lately. This is one reason I have not blogged in a while. Two weeks ago, she had a terrible cold. She finally recovered from that and I thought we would be okay for a while. Then a week ago, she quit wanting solid foods. At first, I thought she was just being picky, but as the week went on, she quit eating the things that I know she likes. Then, she quit wanting her formula. I took her to the doctor thinking that it may be an ear infection or something. He wasn't able to find anything and told us to just keep watching her. We did and after a few more terrible days of not eating, she finally started eating again. The only thing I can figure is that she had a stomach bug. She finally has started eating like she used to. I'm SO relieved!! I was absolutely scared to death when she wouldn't eat. As a nurse, I had the worst case scenario in my head. I was about to drag her back to the doctor when she started doing better, thank goodness. Now that we have gotten past that, she has spiked a fever. It just happened tonight, so I gave her some Tylenol, a bath, and lots of fluids and put her to bed. I'm anticipating a rough night tonight. If she isn't better tomorrow, I'll take her back to the doctor. I sure hope it's not anything serious!

Here are some updates on the things we have been up to since my last post.

We had a visit from my best friend Erin and her dog Bella. This is a video of Haley and Bella playing with Bella's bone. It took her a little while to warm up to Bella at first, but she had a blast with her once she got comfortable.

Haley and Erin.

For Haley's first birthday, we are doing a ladybug theme because she has always loved the book Ten Little Ladybugs. My friend Lee Ann bought her a GIANT ladybug and went ahead and gave it to her. It is as big as she is and she loves it!

We happened to have on matching outfits one night, so I made Scott take pictures of us. Kind of corny, but I thought it was cute anyway.

I finally got her standing and taking a step on video. It's not easy because she doesn't last long.

10 months...and walking??

2010-01-27T21:01:00.005-06:00

Haley turned 10 months old on Tuesday. Time has flown by so fast. I'm starting to plan her big first birthday party. It will be on March 27, here at our house. If anyone would like to come, let me know and I will send you an invite. We want as many people here as possible to celebrate the big day.

First off, here are some pictures of Haley trying to mount her train after it has tipped over. I just thought they were too cute not to post.

Here she is playing rough with daddy, but loving it.

Here she is during her monthly photo shoot. I can't believe it has been 10 months already. She's growing too fast.

Here she was with her stuffed lamb just a few days after she was born. The lamb was bigger than she was.

Here she is with the lamb now.

OK, so I may have been a little ahead of myself with the title, but her is her latest version of walking. Notice how angry she gets when she can't go any farther. She's so funny.

This was the first time she was able to do this without my help. Before, she would push the train but wouldn't walk with it. Therefore, she would almost face plant on the ground. She has also started to stand for a few seconds without holding on to anything. I'm pretty sure she will walk before her first birthday. I THINK I'm ready for it...

No silly cold can keep us down

2010-01-20T20:29:00.006-06:00

Well, Haley developed a nasty cold this past weekend and it has carried on into this week. This is the third cold she has had in her life and definitely the worst. Her poor nose has been like a water faucet and I can't use the bulb sucker without Scott's help. So, I have been having to wipe it constantly and it is so raw that she just cries every time. I have been letting it run until it gets too messy. For this reason, I feel like we are drowning in snot. We are both covered in it by the end of each day. Now, I have the cold and so the snot just keeps flowing. It's not pretty around here. She also has a terrible cough and today it was so bad that it made her vomit her breakfast and then her lunch too. Today was not a lot of fun.

So, we have been cooped up in the house all week to try and prevent spreading our germs (even though Scott has it now). We have been trying to make the best of it and we have played our heads off. Even sick, Haley is the sweetest baby alive. These are some pics from our last couple of days.

One of her favorite things to do - play in the dishwasher.

Notice the snot streaked across her face.

It was so nice out yesterday that I put her highchair out there for lunch. She absolutely loved it.

Eating cheerios (her favorite). You can also see her raw cheeks and nose in this picture.

She is about to sneeze here. Notice the cheerio on her head.

Rubbing her eyes because she was getting tired. A great shot of the cheerio.

Here she is looking over the step of our deck. She can't decide if she is brave enough to go down. She never did.

She did figure out how to go up the step though.

The short journey of the infant car seat

2010-01-15T22:49:00.003-06:00

Haley has now outgrown her infant car seat. The limits are 22 lbs and 29 inches. While she could still be in it for a while to come weight-wise, she has outgrown it in length. So, I did tons of research and lots of asking around and finally made a decision. I got a great deal on diapers.com and ended up with two high end car seats for the just a bit more than I would have paid for one at BabiesRUs. The fabric was not what I would have picked normally, but this one was on closeout, so I couldn't resist. Plus I got a discount and free shipping. I was so excited. We have yet to try them in our cars, but I'm confident that they will work (we will make them work).

I feel like she has not been in the infant seat for very long. Ten months is nothing in the grand scheme. I have always heard that you want to keep them in the infant seat for as long as possible because you can carry them around more easily and if they are asleep, you can transfer them more easily. However, Haley has stayed asleep in her seat probably 10 times or less since she has been born. She always wakes up when we open the car doors, no matter how hard we try to be quiet. There have been several times when I have so carefully carried her into the house only to find her wide awake once we got inside. So, that part doesn't really affect us. I think this will not be a terrible transition for us and I look forward to her moving up in the world.

So, here is Haley's car seat journey so far...

One of the first pictures in her infant seat. April 2009 (1 week old).

The last picture in the infant seat. December 2009 (9 months old).

Her new big girl seat. She seems so small. January 2009 (9 1/2 months old).

I didn't get a picture, but each time we put her in it, she immediately started rubbing her eyes like she was exhausted. Hopefully that's a good sign :).

Of course, she found the tag and loved it. I hate to remove it.

The new crawl

2010-01-10T21:36:00.007-06:00

I want to start out this post with some pictures of Haley's newest form of entertainment. She has been able to open our bathroom drawers for a while now, but she always just immediately slammed them back closed. She never knew that they would stay open or that they had anything in them. Well she finally figured everything out the other day, and she had a blast pulling everything out and throwing it on the floor. I sat there and watched her because we didn't have much else to do and I am willing to let her do a lot of things if it will entertain her for a while. I thought everything in the drawer was fairly safe and there wasn't anything she could hurt. Well as with most situations, she somehow figured out that there was a way to make a big mess. I had two little bottles of vitamin E that I used back when I was pregnant. I never thought she would be able to get the cap off, but she proved me wrong. She ended up spilling a good bit all over the floor and herself. Fortunately, the damage was very minimal and easy to clean up. I learn something new from her every minute it seems. She always amazes me. She had a great time, though, and was so proud of herself. She kept pulling things out and looking up at me for reassurance and then smiling so big when she knew that it was okay. It was fun for both of us.

Then I let her play with herself in the mirror. She loves to see herself and two of me. She just looks at me in the mirror and then back at the real me and laughs. It's so fun to watch her learn.

She loves to grab on to the faucet. It always cracks her up.

Here is her new way of crawling. She just started this a few days ago. I'm not sure why she does it and she really only does it when she is chasing one of the cats. I can only figure that it's the next step in her learning to walk. It's very funny to us though.

Snow Day

2010-01-07T20:39:00.004-06:00

Haley got to experience her first snow today. I was really hoping there would be more. Normally I just hate it when it snows because it shuts the city down and I still have to make it to work, but today I didn't have to work. It would have been a great day for a lot of snow. I had visions of putting Haley on the ground in a couple of inches of snow. No such luck. I was kidding myself. She did, however, get to see a few flakes. We had a great day anyway.

The first picture outside. She seemed pretty happy about it even if she didn't know what was going on.

I think she was looking at the snow falling.

Looking at the snow that fell on her hand.

The most accumulation we had all day :(.

The flakes did get bigger, but it still wouldn't stick.

I finally got a good picture of her teeth and I wasn't even trying. Notice the one on her top left that has come through (right side in this picture). The top left is swollen and will come through any day. She's getting so big!

Bath time fun

2010-01-06T21:02:00.004-06:00

Tonight, during Haley's bath, I decided to take some pictures of the fun. She loves bath time, but things are getting harder with her standing and starting to figure out cause and effect (she throws toys over the side to see what happens). Bath time is always interesting.

Standing up.

It's like she is saying, "Please stop taking my picture while I'm naked. I'm embarrassed."

Oh, this is so dangerous! I don't know what to do about it.

She loves her toys. This is also a good pic of her teeth. The top ones are starting to come in now too.

This is her favorite toy. It's a rubber ducky, but she loves the little hole in the bottom the best. Go figure.

She ALWAYS throws rubber ducky over the side and then cries when I won't give it back. If I do give it back, she just throws it right back over.

Here she is giving her bear a "kiss". She is so cute!

9 month birthday and a visit from Mimi, Pop and Uncle Blake

2010-01-03T01:16:00.007-06:00

Haley turned 9 months on 12/26. She's growing so fast. Where has the time gone? She had another check up at the pediatrician's. She weighed in at 17 pounds 5 ounces. That puts her in the 20th percentile for weight. She was 29 inches long, though, which is the 90th percentile for height. So, she remains long and lean. She has her two bottom teeth and one of her top ones is starting to come in. She has been amazing, so far, through the whole teething process. We are so lucky. She continues to sleep really well at night - from 7 or 8 to about 7 in the morning. We are spoiled with this too. She is eating really well. She will try anything and likes most of it. She has, however, started to refuse the pureed stuff and really prefers feeding herself or having big people food. We are sort of struggling to figure out what to feed her most nights. She loves mac n cheese, eggs yolks, cheerios, yogurt, fruits and pasta. It's so much fun to watch her feed herself. She has to have food in both hands and then stuffs as much as she can into her mouth. Most of it makes it to her mouth, but she drops a good bit too. In just the last few days, she has started to stand for a few seconds on her own without holding on to anything. Once she realizes what she is doing though, she falls down. She is getting very brave.

9 month pictures (if you look closely, you can see the bottom teeth).

She is mad at me for taking the rattle away.

She got over it.

Reading Mother Goose to herself.

Getting weighed at the doctor's.

She is fascinated by ducks.

She has now reached the height limit for her car seat, so we have to get her a big girl car seat ASAP.

Studying and admiring her Pop.

Watching Mimi sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider".

Splashing with Pop.

Pop reading the menu to Haley at the Cheesecake Factory.

Eating mac n cheese and loving it.

Playing with a sugar packet. She thinks it's so funny to put things in Daddy's mouth.

Christmas Day

2010-01-03T00:58:00.006-06:00

Santa came!!!

She loves to put her mouth on fuzzy things. This was the dog in her touch and feel book.

She loved this picture of herself that Mimi sent us. We love it too!

Sitting amongst her many gifts.

Our living room after we opened everything.

Playing with her new ball popper. It shoots balls out in all directions. She gets a little scared of it sometimes.

Chasing after one of the balls.

We went to Anniston for Christmas dinner. Here she is with her Grandmother.

Here she is with her cousin Elizabeth Anne.

With her Great Grandmother, "Wheetie".

As many pictures as I take, this was the only one we got as a family during all of Christmas. So sad. I'm very disappointed in myself.

Christmas Eve

2010-01-03T00:27:00.005-06:00

As usual, I am a little behind. It is so much easier to be behind than caught up. We had a fantastic Christmas and New Year's. It is so much fun watching all of this through Haley's eyes. She was too young to understand this year, but it was still so much fun to do. We are trying to develop our own traditions that we will do as a family. We really had a blast with her this year.

I think she is ready to open presents.

A little unsure.

Starting to warm up to the new toys.

Of course, her favorite part was one of the tags.

Excited about her new purse.

Playing in the tissue paper.

Da Daddy is way funny!!

Sporting her Christmas PJs.

Getting ready for Santa.

Practice makes perfect

2009-12-23T19:23:00.006-06:00

Here are a few shots of us before Scott's work party last week. We never get family shots, so I was thrilled to get these.

These were during a walk that we took. She was just too cute in her jacket so I had to snap a few shots.

She has loved playing with this ornament over the last few weeks. However, the paint started to come off and it had to be thrown away.

Practicing her pucker.

Here she is practicing her "reading".

Perfecting her fake cough. She, like most kids, thinks it's so funny to "cough".

If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands.

2009-12-18T23:56:00.005-06:00

We haven't really been up to much lately. We have just been hanging out, getting ready for Christmas. I just decided to put up some recent pics of some funny faces and new developments. The most notable of her new developments are clapping and waving. She has always loved it when we clap and so her daddy was able to quickly teach her to clap. She loves the song "If you are happy and you know it". Her favorite is the clapping part. This video was taken a few weeks ago. She has gotten more coordinated with the clapping now. She has also learned to wave. Frequently, she ends up waving backward (waves at herself), but it's the cutest thing. She just looks at her hand like she's wondering if she is controlling it. She has started waving at any picture, but especially the Christmas card pictures we have up right now on our fireplace mantle. She also loves to wave at herself in the mirror.

She has learned how to feed herself and loves it. She can pick things up and almost always makes it to her mouth. She starts to get excited, though, and tries to pick things up with both hands and goes for her mouth with both of them. One hand always makes it before the other and then she is stuck with one hand full of food and forgets about it. At that point, it goes to her lap. I can't help but laugh about it. A mess is guaranteed, but so worth it.

Clapping!

I don't know why she was doing this, but it was funny.

Picking up her food.

Feeding herself.

One of her recent funny faces. I think it's because she may be getting her top teeth.

I was trying to get her in her cute Christmas outfit. I also got her being brave with only one hand on the table. Not to mention, this was a funny pose.

Who is this Santa guy?

2009-11-30T21:11:00.004-06:00

Haley got to sit in Santa's lap for the first time. She did really well and they got this picture on just the second try. I hear that most kids do well the first time but are scared after the first year. So, next year may be more challenging. I'm happy with this one though. She tolerated him for a while, and then was ready to come back to us. It was a great experience and the Santa at Brookwood Mall was a very nice guy.

Today, she said "da da" for the first time. She has been doing a lot of babbling for a while now, but usually it's just "ha" type sounds. She finally said da da to the great excitement of her daddy. He is very proud of her and himself. He has been trying to teach her to say it since she was born. I'm incredibly proud too though. It's so amazing to hear. I know the "ma ma" will come soon enough and then I may wish for it to stop. I'm in no hurry. She still wants me to hold her all the time, so that's enough for me. I also was finally able to feel her first teeth today. The two bottom ones have finally broken through. She has been trying to cut them for a while now and finally after 8 months, they are here.

Here she is saying "da da" to her Humpty Dumpty book. Needless to say, I don't think she quite understands what she is saying yet.

Turkey Day and 8 months old

2009-11-30T20:37:00.003-06:00

Not only did Haley celebrate her first Thanksgiving this past week, but she also turned 8 months old that day. She is growing up so fast. I can't believe that in just 4 short months, she will be a year old. For some reason, I just can't convince her to slow down and stop getting older. She just insists on changing so much. I must say, though, that each day seems more and more fun with her. She really had a great Thanksgiving. We got to spend it in Memphis with my dad and his family. Haley did great and got to try real turkey, mashed potatoes, and green beans for the first time. She is a great eater now and will try and likes almost anything I put in front of her. I am so proud of her all of the time.

Her regular monthly picture. I had a hard time keeping her in the chair this month. Normally, she just hangs out then rolls around, but this month she kept trying to crawl off of the chair. There is no telling what next month will bring.

Trying mashed potatoes for the first time. Yum.

I'm so proud of my little family.

Daddy is trying to teach her to clap.

Playing with her favorite cousins, Murphy and Madden. They are listening to Aunt Sandra's wonderful rendition of "Itsy Bitsy Spider". They couldn't stop watching.

Loving some daddy time. Everyone was feeling tired after all of the turkey.