Hailey's School Picture

I think the pictures speaks for itself!

First Day of Preschool

Hailey's started preschool this week. She is LOVING it.

The first day was a little rough for us both. When I dropped her off, she automatically clung to my arm, my hand, whatever she could get her little hands on. She didn't want me to leave. I was a bit emotional, but I held it in until I could leave her there. I didn't want to make it any harder on her. I finally was able to sneak out, and made it to the car before I burst into tears.

I cried for the better part of the two hours that she was gone. But she did fantastic. She LOVED her school and talked my ear off on the car ride home.

Ikea Family Night

All summer and through September, Ikea is sponsoring a family night on Monday nights. They have their all-you-can-eat pasta for $1.99, and a lady that does face-painting and balloon animals. Its a lot of fun. I was surprised the first time how well Hailey did getting her face painted. It helps that this lady that they have hired to do it is so fast, and amazing. Best of all, this is all FREE! Unless of course, you opt to grab some food.

Take a look at her work:

The first week we went, she wanted to be a kitty.

The second week, she wanted to be a puppy.

The last time we went, she wanted to have flowers.

This child is {SOOOOOOO} my daughter....

I had to put Hailey down for a late nap today, so she didn't go down until about 4pm. Around 6, I figured that I better wake her up if I had any hope of her going to bed at a decent hour.

I went up to her room, and her eyes were open, so I figured that she'd been awake for a bit. I smiled and greeted her, like I usually do.

Me: "Hi punkin! Did you have a good sleep?"

Hailey: {blank stare}

Me: "Do you want to come snuggle with mom downstairs?"

Hailey: {glare}

***Awkward silence***

So I just picked her up and brought her downstairs.

For the next ten minutes, while she was sitting on the couch with me, every time I said a word to her, she would slowly turn her head and glare at me.

Then, she slowly slid off the couch, yanked her blanket away from me, grabbed her baby, and marched back upstairs to her bedroom.

I went up to check on her and she was laying in her bed. I said "Are you just not ready to be around people yet?" To which she responded "EEEEEEE!" and turned her back on me.

She is soooooo my daughter, its not even funny. Love this girl!!

Swimming

I'm just going to get this out there:

I am terrified of water. Absolutely terrified. I start to hyperventilate if I get into water above my chest. I panic in boats. One time, when I was a teenager, I had nightmares for 2 weeks before a temple trip to do baptisms for the dead. I dreamed that I drowned in the baptismal font. I have to admit though, I have gotten better over the last few years. I am trying to overcome the debilitating part of my fear for the good of my children. I don't think I'll ever completely get over the fear, but I don't want my children to be as afraid of the water as I am.

Because of this, I have enrolled Hailey in swimming lessons for the past few summers. This year, I chose to do semi-private lessons. My friend, Shelly, is staying with her parents, who have a pool in their backyard. Hailey's teacher, Catie, was amazing. Hailey looked forward to swimming lessons each day. We did two 2-week sessions, and by the end, Hailey had improved so well. She was even jumping off the diving board by herself! I was so proud of her!!

diving for rings at the bottom of the pool

"ice cream scoops" to the wall

my happy little "fish"

star fish floats

1st video - I don't know why this is on its side. This video is of her jumping off the diving board, by herself.

2nd video - This is the first time she jumped in the pool by herself. Catie would "chop" the tree down and the kids would jump in the pool.

Finally an Update...

I'm so far behind. Please remember that I post chronologically, so be sure to scroll down and look at my latest posts.

We've been doing really well, staying busy.

Ryan - has GRADUATED!!!!!!!!!! We're so proud of him and SO excited that we'll be seeing him more. What an accomplishment!! Great job, honey!!! He continues to enjoy his job at Sorenson Communications and is doing well there. I'm sure he's not going to know what to do with all of his extra time now that he's done with school. We'll be having a HUGE celebration later in the month, so stay tuned for that.

I don't think anyone is more excited than Hailey about Ryan graduating. She is such a daddy's girl and LOVES her dad.

Aubrey - I'm so glad that Ryan is done with school. It has been really hard this last little while on all of us. I'm glad we'll be able to spend some more time together. We've been enjoying our yard this year, since we put in the fence its a lot more enjoyable to be outside. I've been busy planning two family reunions, the last of which is this coming weekend, so that has been keeping me busy.

Hailey - Hailey is a typical 3 year old girl. I talk to some of my friends who have 3 year old girls also, and am so relieved that I'm not the only one going through this. It seems to be something with the age. Sometimes she is as sweet as can be, and other times...I want to sell her to gypsies :). She is so fun though and comes up with some of the craziest things. The other night, she was outside playing with her cousin (another 3 year old girl) and I went out to see what they were doing. Hailey told me that they were "licking a hot dog tree that they planted for Cinderella." Wha??? She's very entertaining and we love her and wouldn't trade her for anything in the world.

Tale as Old as Time...

We went to the Scera Shell Outdoor Theater with our friends to see their production of Beauty & the Beast. Our girls dressed up in their prettiest princess dresses for the show. Everyone commented on how cute they were.

This was after trying to take too many pictures :)

The show didn't end until 10:30pm, and we had to walk about a half mile back to the car, so the girls were exhausted.

This is how they were when we arrived at home:


It was so fun, and since the show, both girls have wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast every. single. day.

Swimming Lessons

A friend of mine is staying with her parents up in Highland and they have a pool. She got together a few other friends and we hired a personal swim teacher.

(for those of you in the ward, the teacher is Callie's sister - and she was FANTASTIC!)

I'm not sure what the problem was in this picture, but this is such a classic Hailey face.

Hailey did really well. She improved leaps and bounds from the first day to the last. In fact, she was sort of swimming by herself on the last day. I wish we could have done another session.

The WORST Scare of my Life

Hailey gave us a good scare the other night. I was the most terrified I have ever been.

Here's what happened:

She had been flipping over her daddy's leg like it was a bar for about 20 minutes, and had been just fine. Ryan and I were visiting with his parents while she was being crazy. All of a sudden, she landed hard, with a LOUD thud, flat on her back, and her neck looked a little weird. She got up and reached out to Ryan and tried to cry. All that came out was a loud wail, then she went completely white and stopped breathing.

Ryan started gently shaking her telling her to breathe. She started breathing again, just in time for her to go totally limp, her eyes rolled back in her head, she passed out and stopped breathing AGAIN.

At this point, I was totally calm. And by totally calm, I really mean totally FREAKED OUT.

Ryan's parents were kind of in shock, sitting on the couch. Ryan was kind of shaking her, telling her to wake up. I didn't know what to do, so I screamed at Ryan's dad.

"DAD!! WHAT DO WE DO???? WHAT DO WE DOOOOOOOOOOO?????"

Ryan's dad jumped up and came over and gave Hailey a couple of hard shakes and she yelled "HONEY, WAKE UP!!!"

She started crying and breathing, albeit, her breathing was a little labored. But she was breathing.

This all happened in a matter of about a minute, but it felt like an ETERNITY to me.

She cried for a good 15 minutes, all the time telling me her head and her chest hurt. I asked if Ryan and his dad would give her a blessing before his parents went home.

She was fine, back to normal, almost before they walked out the door. I was so nervous all night about the oxygen her brain lost, even if it was for just a few seconds. She was back to normal before we put her to bed, but I kept worrying all night that she would wake up and slur her words, or not be able to talk at all. But she was fine. Perfect. Back to normal the next morning.

The whole experience made me think. I had had a VERY rough week with Hailey and was about at the end of my rope. The whole thing made me forget about what a rough week we had had, and made me appreciate her, and being her mom all over again.

I'm grateful to be a mom, Hailey's mom especially. I'm grateful for a husband who is a worthy Priesthood holder. But most of all, I'm grateful that Hailey is just fine.

in answer to your question....

Are we having more kids?

Yes. But its slightly more complicated that just deciding that we want more kids.

As many of you know, it took us about 18 months to finally get pregnant with Hailey. Once we found the "cocktail" of medications, it only took about 2 months. This time around, that particular "cocktail" is/was not working. Right now, we are pursuing some more aggressive fertility treatments at a Fertility Clinic in Sandy.

With that said, I want to recommend this article. It talks about infertility etiquette. I wanted to share it, as we have both been asked and told some very hurtful things, by people who mean well, but just don't understand our situation.

We would appreciate your prayers and understanding as we are going through this challenge.

Hailey's Birthday Party

Hailey had attended birthday parties of several of her friends this year, so I thought it would be a good idea to throw her a party of her own.

Well..

She had a blast:


I have decided that we will adopt the tradition of only doing BIG parties like that for BIG birthdays. It was way too much work for a 3 year old, even though she did have a blast.















We are glad so many friends came to celebrate with us!

To My Daughter on her Birthday...

Dear Hailey,

I can't believe you are three! It seems like just yesterday, you were this little tiny baby, and then I blinked and you are this sassy, pink loving, three-year-old girl.

age: 1 week

age: 3 months

age: 6 months

You are such a Daddy's girl. The minute your Dad walks in the door, you want little to do with me. That's ok, though. You have your moments where you prefer me, and we have lots of fun while Daddy is at work.


I love that you find joy in such simple things. You get so excited just about helping with things around the house, or being able to play outside.




You are growing up so fast. You talk like a little adult. You are the funniest little person I have ever met. Some of the things you say make me laugh so hard! Upon seeing snow in mid-April {again}, you gave this exhasperated sigh and said "Oh my heck! I seriously am going to beat the snow!!" Daddy and I really have to watch what we say around you these days :)



You are a bit on the sassy side. You are such an independant kid, which makes me crazy at times, but I think it will serve you well late in life. I hope you always remember to make good choices.



You have changed and grown so much in this last year. You are go to the potty like a big girl (yay!), you sleep in a big girl bed, you can pedal a bike. You love to "help" with everything around the house. You are such a big helper to me, and I appreciate that.



You remember so much more than I would have guessed you would remember at three. You talk about going to Sea World and seeing Shamu, and going to the beach which we did almost 8 months ago, almost daily.



I love when you choose me to "rock for two minutes" with you right before bed. Its such a fun time to just snuggle with you and kiss you and hold you. It makes me sad that you are almost getting too big to sit on my lap.

I love you more than you will ever know! I can't remember what we did before you, and can't imagine life without you.

Love you forever, Mommy

Hailey's favorites at age 3:
Favorite Movies: Bolt and Tinkerbell
Favorite Book: If You Give a Cat a Cupcake
Favorite Meals: Hamburger, Pizza, or Macaroni and Cheese
Favorite Snacks: String Cheese and Granola Bar
Favorite Treat: Anything chocolate :)
Favorite Toy: Mommy Koala
Favorite TV Shows: Super Why and Word World
Favorite Things to Do: Play outside with friends, bake with Mommy