Hailey's 5th birthday party

Last night we celebrated Hailey's birthday. We did it early because Darrin and Jenna are going out of town and we have another party we got invited to down in VA on Saturday. It felt a little "off" to me because it was so many days before her actual birthday, so I was having a hard time getting into the birthday spirit that day BUT seeing her excitement changed that pretty quick :)

At 9am she was setting the table, at 10am, she was hanging decorations and asking me to blow up balloons. By 11am the house was decorated and guests weren't coming till 5pm. The enthusiasm of kids, wow...haha, it's so great.

She was so cute because for a while now she has been coloring all the pages in her Disney princess coloring book that are scenes from Sleeping Beauty. And she had been telling me that they were to hang for her birthday party. And that was exactly what she did. She brought me the coloring book, asked me to carefully tear out all the pages she colored and she proceeded to hang them all over the house! We had scenes from the movie on her colored pages everywhere. I love her attention to detail.

I had also bought her a bouquet of red roses (obviously because of Briar Rose and she holds a rose when she is asleep) and then each girl got to take a rose home with them.

After Owen went down for his nap we started working on her cake.

this doorway was just begging to be a castle gate, so I obliged.

I love how we are looking at each other in this one :) Also, Owen is a giant.

we look like a family of dunces. Why do they love party hats so much??

I had printed images of Aurora and Philip and Hailey helped me glue them to party hats. Girls wore the princess and boys wore the prince.

We gave her a new bike (she learned how to ride without training wheels last week!!) and a set of sheets and comforter that was Sleeping Beauty themed. The bike also had disney princesses on it including Aurora. I had found all of it at a yard sale that I randomly decided to stop at, just to see if I saw anything I wanted. Seriously, the Lord loves to love us in the smallest details!!! And she was just over the moon about it all.

My favorite things she said:

While decorating the house:"I am the leader today."

Randomly: "Casey, I am a grown up now."

(which is too funny, and SMART because we tell them things like, you are getting to be so grown up....you are so grown up now, etc!!! And we refer to ourselves as GROWN UPS! It killed me.)

While getting ready for bed: "Mommy, everyone likes me."

I stopped what I was doing and got down in front of her, looked her straight in the eye and said, "Yes they do! Because God made you so special and sweet!" And I felt compelled to add, "And if ever someone doesn't, they are the silly one."  And she gave me the biggest smile and hug.

I am so proud of her because she is blossoming so much and did so well with the few guests that we had over. She is talking more willingly to people she has been extremely shy and nervous around in the past. She really is growing up :)

Have Courage and Be Kind

Ever since I took Hailey on a mother-daughter date to see the new Cinderella, I have often thought about the phrase from the movie, "have courage and be kind." I so badly want to instill these things in my children. 

This morning, I got choked up as Hailey told me something that really shocked me.

You see, when Hailey was 10 months old, on the eve of Mother's Day as it happened, I put her to bed with a little pink blankie/bear. That night she slept through the night for the first time, and never looked back. (It was a wonderful Mother's Day present from her! I remember waking up and realizing I had slept through the night because Hailey had!!!) Ever since that night she has been inseparable from it. She would take it to church, the grocery store, the library, to bed, she would hold it close whenever she was upset, nervous or afraid. We lost it in Washington DC and we retraced our steps to miraculously find it on the sidewalk. She chewed the nose off and I patched it. The bear head/arms fell off and I patched it. She loved it so hard there were holes it in. And I patched it. I washed it and bleached it. And she kept on loving it.

This past week we were visiting family in Wichita, KS and as usual, Hailey went to bed with it every night. We left on Friday morning and broke up the 1200 mile long trip by crashing with some friends in St. Louis that night. They have a boy and a girl same ages as ours, Rose and Gus. And I remember seeing Hailey with the blanket in the driveway as we were getting our things to take inside for the night.

But after dinner and playing, as I was putting her to bed, it was no where to be found. No where. And I looked every.where.

My sweet girl tearfully went to bed without it and I told her we would keep looking. The next morning we still couldn't find it. We had a 14 hour drive ahead of us and we told our friends to mail it if they found it!  I felt so bad, I was holding on to hope!!

During the long drive, she told me a few times she missed it, and wanted it, and cried again at one point. She kept telling me, "My blankie is so special to me. You gave it to me when I was a baby. It is my friend. I miss it." (it made my heart ache a little for her!)

When we got home around 11pm, I put her to bed with another blanket from when she was little and told her I would search the car in the morning.

After combing every inch of the car this morning, I told her it wasn't there either. She didn't get upset, she just didn't say anything.

Then a few minutes later, as I was getting dressed for church, she came up to me and said, "Mommy, Rose and Gus can have my blankie now and I can have this one instead." (she was holding the one I gave her to sleep with the night before)

Luke and I looked at each other like, "can you believe this??" I got down next to her and told her how brave and kind that was. Because it was. And maybe we are the only ones who recognize it as such, because we know how attached she was to it. It was so innocent, so unprompted, and simply pure sweetness.

This afternoon I told Luke I would know whether or not it was going to stick when bedtime came. I didn't know if she would decide she still missed it or wanted it. But when I told her it was time, she wondered outloud, "where is my blanket?" and walked over and picked up the one from the night before.

I really am proud of her. These things can be hard when you are young! 

Summer 2011, 15 months old

Christmas 2012

Halloween (in her hands) 2014

Last week :(

The day Hailey made breakfast

March 8th was a morning I won't forget. Hailey already had been given a bowl of cereal but she decided she was still hungry. While I was in the shower, she made herself a bowl of oatmeal. Yep. Start to finish, she successfully made herself second breakfast. And there was hardly any evidence. She had gotten the big container of oatmeal out of the cupboard which was up high, measured out her oats with a measuring cup, put the oatmeal away, then added some water, microwaved it, and took it out before it bubbled over, and then she took the milk gallon and poured it into a measuring glass making it easier to carefully pour milk into her bowl. What a smarty pants. She was SO proud of herself. I couldn't believe it. There was such minimal mess too.

She is so capable, it amazes me. And only 3 and half years old. Way to go, Hailey! 

Hailey and Heirloom earrings

Ok, so that's probably an exaggeration. Heirloom implies worth a lot right? But what if it's worth a lot in sentimental value? That factors in too right? Anyway, I've had these earrings laying around forever. 

They are clip on, or rather, you screw them on (totally crazy and cool) and my Grandma gave them to me years ago. They are from one of my great great aunt's jewelry boxes. I have had the intention ever since she gave them to me, (I was seriously probably like 16), of taking them to a jeweler and having them made into actual earrings. They are s pretty and I thought they would be precious stud earrings. 

Well, I'm SO glad I didn't. 

She doesn't like being the center of attention and was being all goofy, self conscious and cute :)

They have found a new owner, and I think Hailey's Great Great Great Aunt would be pleased.

Our princess and a little Irish Lad

I'm a little, no, a lot excited, about this dress I just made for Hailey.

I did not tell her to pose like this. I think it was just mid twirl. 

 I was in JoAnn's and saw the pink fabric on the bolt, already like this...with the top part all ruffled and stretchy, you know what I mean? I immediately thought how easy it would be to whip it into a dress! Seams down the sides, throw on straps and done! Weeeellll......I got home and held it up to Hailey and discovered I didn't get a big enough piece! So it became like a scene out of Cinderella:

"I'll add some sleeves and a ruffle, and something for side panels"

And voila!

The sash really brings it all together. She looks so sweet in it. The simple little summer play dress I had in mind became this adorable girly frock. I told her she can wear it every day if she wants. I meant it to be a play dress since every day she wants to wear a dress. And currently, all she wants to do is hold it and look at it, and save it for church on Sunday, which if you know Hailey, is the highest form of a compliment. It's that special to her.

And this boy....what a love. 

 

Happy belated St. Patrick's Day from Owen!

When you're the best of friends

.....you do everything together.

I love how they wait for each other to do things, ask for the other one, and dislike being apart. It reminds me of my siblings when we were little. You truly are best playmates! Even the quarrelling, and not wanting to share, you learn how to get along and work things out. These two are not capable of working it out themselves most of the time, lots of parental intervention needed still, but they'll get there :)

Daddy/Daughter date

This was totally impromptu one day, Luke stopped home briefly late in the morning and asked the kids, "who wants to go to Mass with me?!" Miss Hailey immediately jumped at the chance to go somewhere with Daddy and told Casey, Owen and I, "You stay here. I go with Daddy, see Jesus, back soon!" She was already prancing around that day in a fancy dress and after putting her coat and shoes on, they both looked so sweet on their way out the door I had to snag a quick photo.

What a beautiful girl she is, and so blessed to have a daddy who strives so hard in loving her (as well as our other children) to show her the love of God the father.

The nap dliemma

The dilemma of the 3 year old nap is something we face daily. Jim Gaffigan has a hilarious section about it in his book "Dad is Fat." I highly recommend you get the book from your library, especially if you have kids. A three year old who naps doesn't go to bed till a ridiculously late hour, yet if they don't nap, they are falling apart hard core by 5pm. Sometimes sooner. 4-7pm becomes an absolute nightmare. Lots of temper tantrums and melt downs. BUT then they will go to bed, totally passed out, at 7:30pm. So it's a trade off. Which would you rather have, I ask myself each day, a break in the afternoon, or an earlier evening to yourself with the hubs? 

It ends up being that Hailey takes about two or three naps a week. She can't really go more than two days in a row without a nap. And they have gotten shorter, if she naps it's from like 2-3pm. Which is fine with me, because then she is still tired around 8pm. 

And some days, she just ends up crashing in the couch. This is becoming something of a Sunday ritual...

I kiss that little cheek a dozen times a day, I can't help myself. 

Hailey Loves

Hailey just wants to be loved. Every child does but she lets me know very clearly every day that she needs hugs, and affirmation. I've been trying to stop and just "be" with her more. And I'm already reaping the rewards. She is more calm, more pleasant and cheerful. When her love tank, as I call it, is low, she becomes whiny, clingy, moody, mean to Casey, emotional...to name just a few. I can write it off as, "she's being three, she's being a girl, she didn't nap today" and yes, those things are factors. But really, she just needs to know Mommy loves her. 

Today we watched Charlotte's Web (the one with Dakota Fanning and Julia Roberts) during rest time and had a snack together. She got to have three unbroken graham crackers. Her favorite. I don't know if it's the brand I buy, but they break SO easily, even when lifting them out of the package. When they are all broken in pieces she's upset. 

We built a doll house together out of leggo's. 

And then she fell asleep in my arms. My three year old. I treasured it. 

We had some really hard days, she and I, in the last week. A lot of melt downs. So much whining it was unreal. And when I pray and ask God what to do, He tells me to just love her. It doesn't mean not disciplining her, I do, and I'm learning in those areas too. Thankfully, we are making strides. I'm learning what consequences are effective for her and more concrete rules are being established. I no longer feel like things are spiraling out of control and she doesn't heed my discipline. She is now. 

And I find that when I look at her and try to see her as Christ does, to love her as He does, to see her sweetness, she is such a happier child and I am one happier Mommy. Its not easy and I fail often but I am thankful to know how she feels the most loved. And knowing is half the battle as they say :)

Baby pigs equal happiness...

...when your three. Apparently. I have no idea why the current obsession with baby pigs but it's all Hailey talks about. I think it started when she and Casey spent the day a few weeks ago watching a tractor across the street from our house harvesting hay. I told her that the hay on the truck was going to a farm to feed the pigs, cows and horses. Of course she then begged me to follow that truck! Everyday she asked to go to the farm to see the baby pigs. Every.Day.All.Day. I was using deflecting tactics like, "I don't know where the farm is." "The farm is far away." Aaannnd it wasn't working. We do live in an extremely rural area so on any typical drive we do pass farms and see cows and horses, and we would excited point them out but none of it was good enough. She wanted those baby pigs.

Then I heard the Frederick County Fair was going on! And they had baby pigs! Hurray! A student had also gotten a handful of free tickets to see the Beach Boys playing for the Friday night concert at the fair. The bummer was that the fairgrounds didn't even open till 6pm, so we were getting a much later start than I would have liked. It ended up being quite a bit of effort with 9months preggo me, and the kids to see baby pigs and hear the Beach Boys for the last 30min of their show, but it was worth it.

First we had to pay our respects to the cows. (We really just came across them first)

All was good, until they started mooing.

Baby pigs at last.

She had this look on her face like, "um yes, these are my baby pigs and you all may look at them too if you want."

Casey was completely into the Beach Boys.

He looked so serious but was so intently and deliberately clapping his hands. He loved it.

It was kind of fun to see them in concert. They are so old! But they still sound good! We got there late, our phones weren't connected with the students trying to let us know they were there and where they were. So that kind of stunk. But it probably was the best length of time for the kids.

I started getting a little nervous too and wanted to leave. I absolutely did NOT want to go into labor at the fair. I was having a few contractions and was feeling quite a bit of pressure. I swear I could tell the baby's head was engaging with every step. I was majorly waddling my way to the car later on.

(I might add, that she has never seen Charlotte's Web and I'm actually planning on getting it from the library when this baby comes as something new and special for her. I can't wait to watch it with her!)

Now when she asks me to see the baby pigs, I tell her they are napping. She says ok.