Seeing Santa

Although we have been doing this military gig for awhile, this was the first time we attended the squadron Kids Christmas Party. Hailey is completely enthralled with Santa this year, and pretty much believes whatever I tell her about him. She was so excited to see him, and once her arrived all she wanted to do was sit and look at him and wait for it to be her turn.
Of course she wanted her face painted

Having a snack and watching Santa. She patiently sat there for over 30 minutes waiting for her turn.
Aubrey's first Santa Encounter
Me and my Big Girl

That same day we were invited to a birthday party. It was our good friend's Candie & Matt's youngest daughter's birthday. Hailey loves going to their house - which is good because Candie has saved me many times when I needed someone to watch the girls, and she also watched Hailey when we were in the hospital with Aubrey, and watched Hailey while Jon, Aubrey and I flew to Florida to look for a house last weekend.

Hailey's favorite thing to do at Candie's house is to play dress up, which what she did immediately after we arrived. Eventually she put her clothes back on, and a little after that I realized her jeans were on backwards. Haha!

Hailey and Trinity - and yes Hailey is in the Birthday Girl Chair...overall she was very well behaved at the party and let Trinity open all her own presents.

Aubrey is supposed to be taking a nap. She doesn't like napping.

Thanksgiving Adventure (yes, I am aware that it is almost Christmas)

Our impending move to Florida required us to change our holiday plans. We finally went to Washington DC to visit Jon's brother - Uncle Chris - and his wife - Crazy Aunt Ruth. Sadly they have lived just three hours away the entire time that we have lived in Virginia, and this was the first time we went there to see them.

I got the bright idea that we should see the sights of Washington DC while we were there. In general, I have a short attention span and low tolerance for museums and monuments, and therefore, in retrospect, I have no idea why I thought this would be fun. Jon loves that kind of thing, and Hailey usually enjoys going anywhere. I told Jon to pick one museum because I knew I wouldn't make it through any more than that. He chose the Museum of Natural History. Approximately 5 minutes into our museum tour Hailey started asking where the door was...and if we were done yet..and if we were heading towards the outside. It was very amusing for me. Aubrey promptly fell asleep, and Jon kept trying to get Hailey interested, but the only thing she was interested in was the gift shop and finding the door to the outside.

When we walked out the door (finally) she spotted the carousel and was very excited to go see that!
Then Jon wanted to walk all the way to the capitol building...and after a little bit I convinced him that we could probably take a picture of it and the Washinton Monument from right where we were. So we did, and THEN he made us all go to the Air and Space Museum, even though I had told him he only got to choose one museum and it was not my fault that he chose poorly and made us go to the most boring musem EVER.

Begrudgingly, I went to that museum too, and like the good little Daddy's Girl that Hailey is, she thoroughly enjoyed the "airplane museum".

Aubrey and I hung out on a bench and had a bottle...

After the museum adventure we went to Uncle Chris's house and then out to dinner with them. Hailey was exhausted at this point and had a complete and total meltdown and probably scared Crazy Aunt Ruth from having children ever - although it was actually her who got her to calm down and act normal for the duration of the meal.

The next morning we went to Ruth's mom's house to celebrate Turkey Day and Nana and Papa drove down and were there too.

Here is Nana and my smiley happy baby in her super cute dress that some nice Etsy person made me.

My Cuties

Crazy Aunt Ruth, Uncle Chris and their two favorite nieces

The Calm

I can't believe that I have not posted a blog in so long - but that shows you how busy we have been! These pictures are from mid-November, which is when I was still approaching our impending move with some sort of calm. In the picture above you see my laid back little baby chilling in her new high chair...she thinks her feet belong on the table. She loves being in her high chair and sits there when we are eating dinner - she feels like she is one of the big people.



The pictures below are of Aubrey's first experience with cereal. Even though she is smiling, it did not go well. She pretty much hated it and gagged the minute it touched her lips. We let Hailey try to give her a bite so that she would feel included - and I hoped it would help get Aubrey to try it. Generally she loves anything that comes from Hailey, but she REALLY does not like cereal. As it has taken me so long to post these pictures, I can now tell you that she is doing much better with eating. We started mixing a little bit of fruit with her cereal and she liked that much better. She is still way more difficult to feed than Hailey ever was, but she improves every day. She likes to put her hands in her mouth as she takes a bite, so eating time is often followed with a bath because she is covered in whatever she is supposed to be consuming.

Back in November, when we were still calm, we took Hailey bowling for the first time. The bowling alley on the base is very nice and kid friendly. Hailey loved bowling, and I liked bowling much better when I got to use the bumper lanes with her!
She has such an independent and competitive spirit. She wanted to do everything on her own, and really didn't want to use the pink ramp thing. After awhile she realized that using the ramp helped her "win better" so she used it. She is so much like her father it scares me...