Thursday, November 3, 2011

iRock!




The picture below is of a very drugged Hailey the day of her oral "surgery".  It wasn't really surgery, but  the dentist needed to use anesthesia in order to be able to fix all that was wring in her mouth.  All in all, Hailey had nine cavities, plus the one that had already been removed, and she had a space maintainer put in to hold the place in her mouth for her big girl tooth to come in where the one had to be pulled.  It was a very expensive and stressful episode that we are happy to have behind us.  Like her father, Hailey has very thin enamel and we have to take extra special care of her teeth.  We learned our lesson and Aubrey is already a pro at brushing.  She is also scheduled for her first visit to Dr. Berry the pediatric dentist in February.  We love him, ao if you are a Panama City person who has kids, take them to him - they are amazing!  
And a more recent update to our dental drama:  Dr. Berry held a "Candy BuyBack" event for kids the day after Halloween.  It was hard for Hailey but we sold 4 lbs of her candy.  She got $4 for it, and we got 4 entries into a raffle for and iPad 2.  Apparently, Hailey is much luckier than her parents, because she WON the iPad.  I am very excited about it and have been using the IPad while waiting for our iMac to upload pictures and talking on my iPhone all at the same time.  iRock:)
Hailey has been busy teaching her baby sister all about Dress Up.  Aubrey loves to do anything that Hailey does and it is not unusual to find our 15 month old traipsing around our house in one princess shoe and an assortment of jewelry.  She is a smart little princess and knows that she can't walk in two shes, so she wears one and carries the other.
Aubrey is still and even more so a joyful little sprite.  She is currently obsessed with Mickey Mouse and is quite the little couch potato.  She says a ton of words, and communicates very well.  She absolutley adores Daddy and wants nothing to do with me the minute he walks through the door.  


I have continues with my attempt to teach myself how to sew.  I made the blanket and burp cloths above for a friend who just had a baby.  I also made Hailey's Halloween costume.
I have a friend who gave me her old rollerblades, so I have been rollerblading sometimes instead of just running.  Its fun and nice to change it up a bit.  My goal is to keep running until I am 20 weeks pregnant.  I am 15 weeks this week and my last run was still at my normal pace.  I do not want to gain 60lbs this time!  Hailey is learning to rollerblade too, although it generally takes us longer to get her ready than she actually spends practicing.

In response to our growing family, we bought a new car!  Its a GMC Acadia and we love it.  It has so many buttons I may never figure out how everything works.  But, it has a third row of seats and a DVD player, so Hailey is thrilled with it.



And Finally, the Halloween pictures!  We had several Halloween events - the Fall Festival at Hailey's school, the squadron Halloween Party and then we went trick or- treating with our friends.  





Catching Up

Well, I am very behind.  I went to download our Halloween pictures this morning and found that I have not downloaded pictures since Hailey's first day of school, which was August 15.  


Aubrey wanted to be in the pictures too.  

Hailey loves school.  Her teacher is Mrs April, and we love her.  She goes to school 5 days a week this year, from 8:30 till 12:30.  We carpool with another little girl in her class, Anna, and we are the morning part of the carpool.  Anna's mom brings Hailey home each day so that we don't have to mess up Aubrey's nap.  Hailey is also taking gymnastics every Tuesday and she has a ballet/tap dance class every Wednesday.  Between school and her activities we keep very busy, but both girls love every minute!
We have been invited to a slew of birthday parties, which has allowed us to try out a bunch of fun things in and around Panama City.  The bowling alley has a skating rink and Hailey figured our how to skate almost immediately!  We have also been to a party at a place called Wilder's World which has a bunch of blow up jumping things.  We learned that Aubrey is terrified of those.

Way back in the first week of September Hailey, Aubrey and I flew to Erie to visit my family and to help celebrate Rowan's 3rd birthday.  We always love being with Aunt Jessica and the cousins and have been counting down the days till we see them again for our big Disney Family Vacation in December.



The Big Girls!
MMMM, Cake!
Rowan's super big birthday gift from her parents
The babies!  Camryn on the left and Aubrey on the right

We finished off that trip with a disastrous misadventure home.  One of our flights was cancelled in Baltimore and we had to wait 24 hours for the next one.  WE tried to make the best of the situation and had a fun hotel stay.  Nana and Papa drove down to spend the morning/afternoon with us and it was great to see them!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Catch UP To Us!

We have been so busy - I have no idea how I ever had a job and did everything else too.  I realize that I did not have as many activities, and that we had a babysitter who was fabulous, but still I have trouble remembering how I managed.  Jon says that I am more relaxed and he loves that we don't have to spend the whole weekend catching up on housework and other chores.  I love it too - its been seven months and I am still very grateful that I am able to be at home with our girls.  

Right after Hailey's preschool year ended we had her dance recital.  She was adorable and loved every minute of it.  Dance is a very expensive extracurricular activity and the recital was painful, to say the least, but she was so proud and so cute.

 The picture below is her little friend Caroline, who is her BFF.  They were in the same class last year and will be together again for this school year.  We have a weekly playdate with Caroline and her siblings (she is one of six) and her mom is one of my favorite new friends.
 Jon and Hailey have lots of adventures.  He tries to take her somewhere and do something special every weekend.  Sometimes we go along, but mostly I keep the little one and they go do scary dirty stuff.
 This time we went along, and it of course decided to thunderstorm, so Aubrey and I got to spend 2 hours in the car. 
 Hailey had swim lessons the first two weeks of summer and by the end of the first day she was swimming on her own with no flotation devices.  Aubrey REALLY wanted to swim too, but she had to stay in baby jail

 Above and below, my trouble makers.  

 These two pictures (above and below) are of Hailey's first swim meet.  Right after she learned to swim she tried out for the Panama City Summer Splashes Swim Team.  She has practice 4x a week and swim meets every week too.  IT has kept us very busy, but more on that later

 Some of the wildlife outside our house.  Jon is fascinated and insists on showing me and photographing everything he finds.  We are up to four snakes and the scorpion shown below.
 I decided that I needed to learn how to sew, so I bought a sewing machine on craigslist for $20.  I made this dress and the skirts the girls are wearing below.  They aren't perfect, the machine has been completely taken apart and repaired twice by my loving husband, but I am still determined and enjoying it.

 THE SCORPION I MENTIONED
 more 4th of July photos taken by our friend Tiffany

 Above is us at the pool in Tiffany's neighborhood, where we tend to spend lots of time. THe extra little girl below is Tiffany's daughter Georgia