December 11th - 2010

This was a busy day!!! We started off the day by going and celebrating Erik's 2nd birthday.  Another year has gone and I can't believe he's 2 (just like last year I couldn't believe he was 1). He's so much fun and such a sweet little boy.  He talks up a storm, says the funniest things in a country accent, and is super with his baby cousin Hadleigh. He's going to be a great big brother to baby Jackson come April!  Daniel and I bought him a "cycle" that he can "ride" himself around the house - it was a hit!

That night was my Aunt Liz & Uncle John's annual Christmas Party.  It was fun, but we were pretty low key since we had Hadleigh with us, and her bedtime was shortly after we arrived.  There's always yummy food and great company there!

Bath Time!

Hadleigh LOVES bath time!  I think she could stay in there for hours if we let her!  Right now I give her a bath every other night - just makes things easier rather than doing it every night.  I use the lavender scented everything and I'm in love - best smelling stuff ever!

Christmas Pictures!

Since we finally got a new camera the first week of December, I had to take some Christmas pictures of Miss Hadleigh :)  They turned out pretty good, so we ended up sending one in the Christmas cards out to our friends and family.  Here's a couple we took:

Mommy Group

I started thinking about how many girls that I know have had babies and how much fun it would be to start getting everyone together. So one day I wrote a message on facebook to a bunch of them - very random I will admit - but we all have something in common! I thought it would be neat to get together, have the kids play, we could all talk and discuss all the things we go through as moms, and just build new friendships. It actually turned out really well and most girls responded. So the beginning of December was our first group play date. Tori let us all come to her house for the first meeting - we all brought some food and we really just hung out and talked. We got all the babes lined up on the couch to snap a couple of pictures - it was the cutest thing! We decided that once a month we would all get together, so stay tuned for more mommy groups!

 Rachel & Owen

 

 Amber, Owen, Paden, and Sarah

 Easton, Addi, Hadleigh, Chloe, and Elijah

 Easton, Addi, Hadleigh, Chloe, Elijah, Rachel, Owen, Adleigh, & Paden

Adleigh & Hadleigh

 Tori, Addi, Mandie, Angela, & Elijah

 Easton

 

Adleigh & Addi

 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I love decorating for Christmas! We finally got our new camera, so I was able to take pictures of our decorations this year - Enjoy!

 Our kitchen table

 Christmas Tree

 The hutch

 Little Tree that you can see in our front window

 Our mantle with all of our stockings (Hadleigh's is already full)

 Nativity Scene that used to be Daniel's Nanny's

 Nana got this for Hadleigh (Mainly to annoy daddy)- it dances to Apple Bottom Jeans by T-Pain. Hadleigh just stares at it...

Hadleigh's Christmas Tree for her room

We have a laughing baby!!

Yesterday I was out with Hadleigh, Tori, and Addi - we had gone to costco to get a few things for our first mommy group (will post about that later this weekend) and decided to head to Target afterwards. Both babies had been asleep, but Hadleigh woke up and started to get fussy so I took her out of her seat and carried her around Target while we browsed.  We went to look at all of the Christmas stuff - I was looking for a little trinket to put by our TV at home, so I bent down in front of an end cap....then it happened....

Hadleigh started laughing! 

It was awesome! She laughed, then stopped, and then laughed again :) It was so cute and I cannot believe her first laugh was in Target looking at Christmas decorations.  I told Tori, if only we had caught it on camera - I could have made some money from Target! I can't wait for her to really laugh hard and long.  When I got home, I fed her and then went back to her room to change her, so of course I tried to get her to laugh some more.  I got another one by me saying "ahhhh.....BOO!" to her! Of course Daniel was at the gym, so he missed it :( He'll hear it soon enough! So exciting!

Tori thankfully had her camera, so she took a "post giggle" picture

Thanksgiving 2010

We have so much to be thankful for this year! We have the best family and friends who are for the most part all happy and healthy.  We're especially thankful for our baby girl Hadleigh.  She has brought so much love and happiness into our lives - more than you could ever imagine (unless you have kids).

We started out the day just hanging around and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, getting ready, and baking the 2 dishes I needed to bake for the day.  I made Sweet Potato Casserole and crab dip for Daniel's grandma's house.  I doubled the recipe for the Sweet Potato Casserole and didn't cook it long enough, so it was a little runny but still delicious. The crab dip is always yummy...

Daniel's grandma's house was really nice.  A few of his aunts, uncles, and cousins hadn't seen Hadleigh yet so everyone was excited when we showed up.  She was asleep through lunch, but then woke up all smiles.  It was great - the whole family prctically gathered around her to give her some attention and see the smiles :)  She got to be held by Great Aunt Nicky, Nana, and Great Grandma.  I'm pretty sure they all enjoyed her company.  Nicky got some pictures with her camera, so I'm still waiting on those copies.  My camera looks like it takes clear pictures but the I go to look at them and they're blurry - flippin sweet! (We bought a new camera on black friday online, so I cannot wait to get it in the mail hopefully tomorrow!)  We had a really nice visit and can't wait to share Christmas Eve with them all again!

We left there and went into Ashland to spend the evening with my parents.  They were already eating when we got there - it was my family plus Mike & Lauri.  We weren't too hungry so we visited mostly.  Hadleigh was all smiles again, so Gramps got some really good pictures of her.  It was so nice just relaxing and hanging out with my parents.  Here's some Thanksgiving pictures from my parents house.  I'll add the ones from Daniel's side as soon as I get copies from Nicky!!

November (minus Thanksgiving)

Thanksgiving deserves it's own post and plus our camera isn't working so hot right now, so I'm waiting for the pictures from my dad and Daniel's aunt.

Hadleigh started off the month by having her big 2 month doctors appointment on  Nov. 3rd.  She did really well! She's in the 50th percentile now, so she's caught up a little.  She weighed in at 10 pounds 11 ounces and 22" long.  She had to get 2 shots in each leg and then get an oral medicine.  She did not like the taste of the medicine and she cried pretty hard when the shots went in, but it only lasted a second.  I did a lot better than I expected - I got a little teary eyed thinking about it before we actually got to the doctor, but no tears when it was happening.

The first weekend in November we went down to the rivah for the Oyster Festival.  It's actually the first time I've been down there since July 4th weekend.  With bed rest and the delivery I hadn't had a chance to get down there.  My parents even bought a house down there, closed at the end of July, and I hadn't even seen it yet! I feel like I packed up Hadleigh's entire life! I wanted to make sure we had everything just in case. It was a little stressful for Daniel and I since both our parents have houses down there now, so we didn't know how the split time was going to work, but it did! We went to the Oyster Festival on Friday to avoid the huge crowds.  Hadleigh slept most of the time as we all walked around looking at the different stands and eating the good food.  I really wanted to partake in the wine tasting last year but didn't, so this year I made a point to do it.  I dragged Daniel with me - we ended up tasting a couple of wines we both really liked.  I bought a bottle and then we headed home.  The rest of the weekend was just hanging out with both families which was really nice.  Hadleigh did good sleeping at a different house than usual and Erik loved her being around.

 pretty smile!

 This picture cracks me up

 Tyler & erik watching "Thomas" I'm sure!

 after bath time in the sink!

 Daniel and his dad

 us at the party

Gran

November 12th was an unexpected night out with some girls.  It was last minute, but Ashley, Ashley, and Michelle were able to come! We had a lot of fun - we started out at Plaza Azteca for some mexican which was so good! Then we left there and went to Three Monkeys and ended the night at Banditos.  It was definitely weird being out, and I missed Hadleigh, but I did have a really good time.  Next time it'll be planned ahead of time, so more girls can make it out!

I had to take Hadleigh to the doctor because she has reflux.  At her 2 month appointment I was telling her doctor about it, so she put her on Zantac to help.  It's been helping but still not fully, so I took her in again.  We switched tghe formula I had her on, so hopefully this helps!  I stopped pumping around the second week of November.  I was pumping twice a day, and then it got to once and now none.  I wish I would have kept up with it a couple more weeks atleast - well I'll know for the next one!  I haven't even really completely dried up, so I wonder if I can get it back by just starting to pump again?! ehh...as much as I want to start back up, pumping is annoying. The new formula seems to be working too, so I think we've found a good combo.  I had to take Hadleigh back to the doctor less than a week after that visit because she had her first cold:( Poor thing was so stuffy and sneezy and coughing.  Then she did have a fever one night - she was not feeling well at all.  She got better a few days later, but we're still battling with the stuffy nose!

I've decorated for Christmas already (since about a week before Thanksgiving).  Pictures to come soon!!

Kelli and I decided to go Black Friday shopping this year.  We were planning on going around 3am, but we started texting eachother at around 10:30, and decided to just go out.  So we started at 11:30pm - we were both so excited!  we haven't done the all-night shopping before - it was fun!  We drove by Toys R Us but it was a mad house and we said screw it, so we went to Old Navy and stood in line until they opened at midnight.  We left there went to Walmart which was not bad at all.  We left there around 1:30-2 and headed over to Kohls who opened up at 3am.  We were pretty far back in the line, so I checked facebook to start passing time.  I found out Kelly Clemons Huckstep was in line there too, so Kelli went to go find her.  She was in the front with Robert and they were nice enough to let us in line with them :) Surprisingly, no one flipped out on us either.  We got in there but actually didn't end up buying anything...the lines got ridiculously long very quick to check out.  We left there and headed to Macys which opened at 4am.  We were the first ones in the door and I got most of Daniel's Christmas presents there (I'm DONE with him!).  Kelli needed some food (she's 5 months preggo and shopping all night!) so we stopped at McDonalds and headed to Bed Bath and Beyond.  We both got  some things and headed home at 6:30am.  Very successful and a lot of fun - definitely will be doing it again next year!