Hailey: 3 months

Gosh, this girl is so darn cute! She sleeps through the night and NEVER takes naps. You heard me. NEVER. Fine....I lied. She'll take maybe one (two on a good day) 10-20 minute nap during the day. Really though...that's a little absurd. I think she needs to have a talk with the newborn/3 month gods and get the info that 3 month olds take naps. Long ones.

*Since this girl never sleeps during the day, my house is always in chaotic disaster and gross, so you have been warned if you come over.

Other than her ridiculous non-napping, she is one hundred percent adorable, just like Claire and Jared. It's amazing how lucky we are. :) She is doing much better with nursing (I thought we'd never make a good pair), she loves to suck her squishy thumb, she loves to laugh and smile, she thinks sneezing (whether fake or real) is hilarious and will laugh everytime....and then she gets the hiccups from the laughing and gets mad about the hiccups, and she is very ticklish. Her hair is reddish brown and her eyes are still dark. Is dark a color? Well, today it is! We can't tell if they even have a color....they're just dark. Maybe we'll say that they're navy.

Claire loves her so much and Hailey is also quite fond of Claire. Claire will squeak and squeal when Hailey wakes up. Jared just likes to poke her eyes out.

We just love her and can't imagine our lives without our Hailey Girl!

(You'd better believe that we had a mini photoshoot. I'm in a photography class, dear people! I didn't get very many good pictures, so you better believe there will be Hailey: 3 months Part 2....all pictures. I'm hoping tomorrow yields better results with the hubster as my aid.)

These adorable yellow walls in our house weren't quite the wonderful backdrop I was expecting. We'll try for a different color someday.

Not a good picture, but that outfit is soooo cute!

 Gosh! If it didn't look like I was trying to strangle her, this would be SO CUTE!

Cut off her head, so we're showcasing those arms!  

And......she's had it. 

Happy three months old, darling child! We love everything about you!

Photography: Week 1

It's that time again where I bombard your life with practice pictures! I started taking my second class through Nicole's Classes last week, which has proved much more difficult with child number three already here. I have a hard time getting pictures because she wants to be held all the time; however, it is very nice to have a model that doesn't run around all the time. I tried to get Claire to be my model for my first assignment, but I just got some nice pictures of scowls and LOTS of sighs until her wiggly 3 year old body couldn't handle a moment more. I love the class as usual and am learning a LOT. Who knew that my camera could do so many things?! It baffles me to think that I have barely scratched the surface of that little thing that fits in my hands.

Our first assignment was lighting ratios. Hailey was the perfect model. This first picture is just because it was so dang cute!

Ratio exercise. It starts out light and ends up with one side of the face in darkness. 

These last three are a little underexposed....sorry. I was concentrating so hard on my light/dark sides of the face that I didn't really account for my exposure. Next time.

Our other assignment was to take a picture of a collection....of something. I have access to children, so I guess that's my explanation for not having something cool like THIS. 

Jared's favorite things

Claire as the aspiring Van Gogh 

6 years

It was my year to plan our six year anniversary. Originally I wanted to go to San Antonio or Galveston for the weekend, but it would have cost too much for just one day of fun. My next plan was to get a hotel in Dallas and have a staycation. All these plans included our kids as well. Unfortunately, we're still living like students and I couldn't find a good enough deal to make it worth it. I also think that I wanted to get out of that apartment so desperately, that I thought a hotel sounded like a dream vacation. Luckily, we moved the week before our anniversary and I had about 2 days to come up with something. It turned out to be super fun. 

First, I made Brian 7 envelopes (one for each married year and one for dating). I wrote down the highlights of each year we were married and maybe had a little gift to go along. For example, for 2007, the year we dated, I told him how glad I was that he basically forced me to try new foods when we were dating. I told a story or two and then I took him to lunch at the best darn Taco place the state of Texas ever did see. 

In 2010, Brian and I went to the Nickelcade a few times and had a BLAST. Seriously, I don't like video games very much, but the nickelcade is fun fun fun! I finally found an arcade place and luckily it was joined to Johnny Rockets and their high calorie ice cream shakes of Heaven. I thought food and games was perfect. Well...... Jared SCREAMED and spent all of dinner time under the table making a huge scene while Brian and I sipped and enjoyed every particle of our delicious ice cream shake. Hailey had a massive blow-out, Jared was a sight to behold, and Claire was as perfect as could be. I laughed to myself of why I thought taking the chillin's along was a good idea. 

Truth is, celebrating 6 years with my family was actually fun. I feel like my family makes these 6 years worth every second, so why not have fun with all of them. They are why we do what we do everyday. Once Jared got his hands on this.....

he was just fine. Claire had fun joining in too.

The kids got what, 7 whole points in bowling. BUT...it had a ball....what could be better?

SKEEBALL!!!!! I LOVE SKEEBALL!!!!! I did horrible actually, but gosh, it was fun! It was a great time waster for the kids while Brian and I played. The kids couldn't get it up the ramp, so 9 balls took a long time. After this, we wandered around playing everything that had a one button push. Jared scored our highest points on a ball drop, way to go Jared! Brian and I spent way too many dollars trying to get a Jackpot and coming within 1 light of it every time. Haha.

Hailey was my baby bjorn date. 

There you have it. You have permission to think we're lame for taking our kids on our anniversary date. For all I can see, when you have a nursing child you don't bottle feed, what's the difference between taking 1 or all 3 kids. 

And sorry the pictures are blurry. I have the worst camera phone in the world AND it was dark. Double whammy.

Sisters

These two girls make me feel a little envious that I never had a sister. Claire always wants to hold her (maybe at the wrong moments even). She has told me that Hailey isn't that heavy anymore and then she tries to pick her up. The other day I left Hailey laying down and when I came back, Claire was sitting next to her, pulling up her head and trying to pull her onto her lap. Maybe she meant that her head alone isn't that heavy? Now I keep Squish strapped to me at all times if not within eyesight distance so I know that her head isn't going to be pulled off. I tell ya, I should let Claire carry Hailey around in the Bjorn and maybe she'd reconsider her weight comment.  Hailey's heavy!

Anyway, all this rambling is always good for a picture. I wouldn't have rambled on so long if I hadn't just taken a picture of the most adorable display of sibling affection ever. Seriously, they have to be the cutest children who every lived!

Claire loves to hold "her baby". Hailey actually did enjoy this. It looks like she's really busting her guts laughing, but what you see is what you'll hear too. Just an adorable smile with no sound. SO CUTE!

Moving

The past two weeks have been a little crazy at our house. We had Hailey's baby blessing and then moved 2 days later. Brian's family was in town and his mom stayed here to help with the kids while we moved. With all the help from his parents and especially his mom, we survived it. I don't know what we would have done if she weren't here to watch our kiddos. Life saver. Moving is a little bit of the worst, but we are OUT of our apartment! Three cheers! The missionaries were over for their weekly meeting on Sunday and asked Brian how the comparison was. He said, and rightfully so, that it's like comparing ice cream to trash. So true, Brian. I even got to spray a cockroach with Lysol while I was cleaning it. No better way to say goodbye to that craphole than spray Satan's creations.

During our move, Claire told my mother-in-law that "maybe they just don't want me anymore". Uh.....good heavens! There goes my fantasy vacation with just Brian all up in smoke because my children will think we abandoned them after 4 hours. At least she said it calmly as if really were no big deal. Wait.....or does that mean she really wouldn't care if we left..... :) Deep down I know that she wants us. Claire also has been comparing our "old house" and our new house lately. Usually this is how the conversation goes:

C: "Mom, this is Hudson's old house, but I call it my new house."

M: "Do you like this new house, Claire?"

C: "Yup, Ieeeeee do! I don't want to go back to the old house. It was too small for me. It didn't fit my toys."

M: "You didn't like that old house?"

C: "No. I don't like that old tall house. I like mine new house.....and mine old red house (provo). I want mine old red house. It fit all my toys in it."

M: "Claire, the red house was really small, don't you want to be in the new, big, brown house?"

C: "Um....yeah, but mine old red house was big. It fit all my toys. I like mine old red house."

And there you have it. A big house is a house that can fit toys in the front room and bedroom. It doesn't matter that our square footage has increased with every move. It's all based solely on toy space (and I think living next door to best friend Kylie had something to do with it too). 

So, we are now in a house with more space and a BACKYARD!!!! Our privacy factor has increased 100%. I have natural sunshine in my life again coming through the windows, the kids are going crazy with all this space to play and I am adjusting to the largest kitchen we've had our entire marriage. I just unpacked the last box yesterday and now I have to find a place to put all this stuff and hang my pictures up. I like to be fully unpacked and completely move-in decorated within a week.....so I have one more day to meet my goal. 

Jared and Grandpa....I don't know if they're reading or if he's making them listen to this Nod song that drove my brains crazy by getting stuck in my head.

Remember that backyard I told you about? Sigh....it's all fenced in....sigh. Fully fenced (our last house was only "partially" fenced (meaning that at one time it was fully fenced, but it was falling apart). We are loving it. The kids play in their water table to their hearts content and I can stay inside and not partake in the Dallas heat. Claire and I did go out and we had a blast playing T-ball. I tried to teach her the basics and she did awesome. She even incorporated golf in there along the way. :)

....see how far that went? :)

She was very particular about butting the ball back. 

See the ball flying by me? Good aim, Claire!

And......we're golfing from base to base..... but....

why golf when you can just run with the bat and the ball?  

She is pointing to the moon with her bat, but I also like that she's showing us her lovely T-ball attire. In our family I guess we play T-ball with a shirt, our undies, and sparkly pink shoes. Maybe it's a good omen.... 

Let's all talk about this dream child for a moment. She was exceptional during this move. Being two months old she likes to be awake at the wrong times; however, we got everything fully moved while being away from her at feeding times and she did great. Since then, she has had a couple rough colicky nights, but then slept for 2 days straight. Seriously, I thought I had a newborn again with all that sleeping.  She also giggled for the first time on June 5th while I was cleaning the old place. I said, "Hailey, can you PLEASE go to sleep?" ....and she laughed at me. No wonder it took me so long to get the cleaning done. Defiant little squish. 

This one just showcases those guns. Not everyone has a ripple in their arm without flexing. :)

Jared LOVES my tools. I know that I love power tools a little too much for being female, but this kid? I think he'd drill holes in every wall if he were given the chance. We had to get a new bookshelf for them (happy dance inserted here) because the last one kept collapsing when we'd take books out. He did a great job at helping me assemble it. 

Here is the little tornado all passed out. Gosh, I love that bundle of boy!  

Hailey's Baby Blessing

We blessed Hailey today and I'm getting these pictures up quickly so my dear family can see them and feel like they were here today. It was a beautiful day and my first day back to church was wonderful. We had family here to help with Hailey and she was a dream. She smiled through her entire blessing, Brian said. We are super grateful for all of Brian's family to be here and had more fun that we've had in a long time and it has been a nice mini reunion.

I had to post two of these almost-the-same picture because Hailey looks so cute in both. 

I love this special little girl more than I can say. I'm amazed at how incredible these little people are and how much of a big impact they make on us every single day. I never thought I'd have more than one little girl (due to the lack of feminine gender in both of my parents families), so having two girls is already so much fun. Claire loves her, I love her, and we'll all love to be girly together (not saying that I don't want another tornado boy around my house....because I want one so much I'd consider getting on that bandwagon right away if we put an order in).