Getting ready for Christmas

Santa told Hailey even though it was naughty to draw on the front door with crayons she could still get presents!

This year Steve and I had all of our Christmas shopping done by the end of November. I like having it done early and think we will do that from now on. Even better than that I wrapped a few gifts that I wanted to wrap and called it quits. I got my visiting teachers to come over and wrap everything else, and a few gifts I picked up from my mom's house.

We told Hailey if she didn't go to bed she would have to sleep in the dryer with the local mice.

Last year we got out all of our Christmas decorations. I left all our decorations and our tree up for the entire month of January. Why? I was dreading how much time and energy it was going to take to put everything up. This year we only got a few decorations out. In general the older I get the more I begin to believe less is better.

Every morning Steve hides the Christmas elf and Hailey looks for it. After she finds it she usually wants to put it in one of the previous hiding spots. The favorite spot so far has been been inside the grandfather clock.

We also got her a chocolate advent calendar from my favorite store Trader Joe's. Hailey is obsessed with this, and I like for her to wait for Steve to get home to open up her treat. That is a very hard thing for her to wait for. Sometimes we don't wait for Steve because he has been working a lot of 12 hours days and doesn't get home until 9:30 or 10:00 p.m.

She thinks chocolates magically reappear every time she opens up a flap. She opened this same flap several times.... she is still waiting for it to come. She must have forgot she already ate it.

Her vocabulary has improved and she has learned lots of new words. Not all of them are nice, she recently told me, "Go away!" At night we like to walk around and look at Christmas lights which she seems quite impressed by.

The apple in the middle is from my CSA box. The two apples on the side are from the tree in my front yard. I think we have gotten close to at least 50 apples off our tree this year. It sure beats buying apples at the store. Hailey and I like to make cinnamon apple chips out of these on our dehydrator and they are delicious!

Playing Inside the Dryer

Bubbles and Babies

Hailey now knows 28 words. She gets excited and says "wow." She's been playing peek-a-boo and says "boo." Saying "jump" and jumping on the furniture is another fun game of hers. Most recently she started saying "cold," "mine," "here," "go," and "bubbles."

And of course Hailey loves babies. This is a doll that's supposed to stay up in the cupboard until Hailey's bigger but if she sees the box she wants to play with the baby inside.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving down at Greg and Annie's. They served an excellent Thanksgiving feast where we ate in courses throughout the day: appetizers, salad, soup, the main course, and dessert. It was nice to eat a series of small meals rather than one big meal.

Hailey had such a great time. Sean and Bri have so many fun toys to play with. And, of course, Hailey loved Baby Kaylee.

The next day we had a Thanksgiving dinner with the Ashcrafts. Kendra was in town and had everyone dress up: the men as pilgrims and the women as indians.

Now that Thanksgiving is over it's time to look forward to Christmas. We bought and decorated our Christmas tree today.

Hailey oohs and ahhs at the lights and ornaments... and broke some of them tonight. :(

A Little Bed for a Little Girl

Hailey has gotten too big for a crib. Once she started climbing out over the railing we knew it was time to convert it into a bed.

She really likes it. Hailey will climb in and out all by herself and she likes playing in her bed during the day.

Her rug was looking pretty shabby so Jeni got out the wet vac and gave it a good, deep cleaning. She took a picture to show a stripe of how it looked before.

Here's a closer view. Looked pretty dirty, huh?

What Hailey Loves

Hailey loves to play with the lock on our wine rack in our kitchen. She now says "key" all the time.

She doesn't like to be in the stroller anymore. When we walk to my mom's house she runs through everyone's yard. She loves to sit on people's front porches like she owns the place.

She also likes to open envelopes that come in the mail. She is fascinated by taking things out of the envelope and putting them back.

She is very good at helping with the laundry and washing dishes.

She loves to wear these sunglasses... all the time!

She loves to look at books.

We recently took her to a movie screening and her 3d glasses were way too big for her little head. She watched the whole movie just the same, even though it was blurry.

She even wants to wear her glasses to bed.

Happy Halloween

We ordered Hailey a cute Halloween costume that got lost in the mail a couple of weeks go. Even though it had a tracking number on it, no one could find it. We didn't want to buy another costume so we just bought her some wings and a wand. This pink dress is Hailey's favorite dress to wear so she was thrilled. (Sometimes I have to hide her dress just so I can wash it.)

She got to go trick or treating and came home with some candy, some pennies, and even a Tinkerbell card game.

Her new favorite thing to do is chase the black crows that love to visit our yard. She will watch them fly away and then run down the the street after them when they land. Poor crows never get a break from her.

A couple of days ago we "practiced" wearing her wings. It took her some time to get used to them.

Steve would pick her up and fly her around the house.

Our carved pumpkins.

Mine is a fairy on a mushroom.

Guess who loves ice cream?

No More Ice Cream!

She loves her Hello Kitty panties.

She likes to read on her mini toilet.

New words she can say: juice & baby (that makes 19).

Here is what came in our CSA box: Kale, Spaghetti Squash, Zucchini, Sweet Potatoes, Grapes, Pomegranates, Apples, Lettuce, and Broccoli. We have never tried Kale or Spaghetti Squash so hopefully we will love them.

Goodbye till next time!