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Monday, June 16, 2014

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!

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

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!  




Sunday, June 1, 2014

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).