New Year's Eve

We spent New Year's Eve at home eating yummy food and painting. Nice combination huh? My mom and Hannah came over and the girls had a blast playing all night.

We decided to get a head start on Haylee's new room instead of sitting around and not doing anything productive all night.

But by the time we had painted for about 3 hours we weren't so sure we'd even make it till midnight. But we did, and Haylee had more energy then all of us.

Here's Jackson so excited for the New Year. HA!

I absolutely love Haylee's expression in this picture. This was her little face right when the ball dropped and we started blowing our party horns and shouting, "Happy New Year!" She was so excited.

I'm sure most people partied well into the night but we were probably in bed by 12:15am. What can I say, we party hard.

(Don't you love the cheese ball face?)

As I look back at 2009, I smile. There were good times and bad but the good out weighed the bad this year. We were able to go to Hawaii, Disneyland, Sedona, and Vegas. We went to the Zoo, Chuck E Cheese, Suns Games, the Renaissance Festival, Coyotes Games, Disney on Ice, Starry Safari, the Circus, Broadway Palm Children's Theatre, Amazing Jake's and the Haunted Graveyard. We went to the Fair, went Camping, Swam & BBQ'd, Looked at Christmas Lights, saw the Celebration of Christmas and Rode the Carousel about 100 times. We celebrated Birthday and Anniversaries, attended Weddings and Baby Showers, spent time with Family & Friends and finally received a Positive Pregnancy Test! We spent time as a family Making Memories.

Here's to 2010! This year will bring a lot of changes to our family.

I Heart Christmas

I just love Christmas. I love decorating. I love all the festivities that come with the holiday. I love spending time with family. But Christmas Day itself goes by way too quick. Then it's gone, for 365 more days. Sigh.

This year we spent Christmas Eve with Josh's Family.
*Yummy food
*Kid's opening gifts.
*Having fun.

Then it was time to head home so Santa could come.

*Cookies for Santa.

*Haylee tucked into bed.

*Listening for Santa to come.

9:00am Haylee awoke to go see Santa and the reindeer who she apparently thought were sleeping down stairs.

*Excitement over reindeer in stocking.

*Cinnamon rolls and cocoa.

*Present time.

Haylee loved helping Mommy and Daddy open their gifts then she'd say, "Merry Christmas" and give us a hug.

Jackson was content with his new "baby".

Haylee's favorite gifts included her cash register and new baby doll.

And she really liked her new doctor kit. She tried it out on Daddy, Jackson and the new baby doll.

Santa was good to all of us this year. I'm glad we were on the nice list!

Of course the fun didn't stop there. After nap we headed over to my mom's house to celebrate Christmas with my family.

*Lots and lots of yummy food.

*Little girls in Christmas dresses.

*Tons of presents for everyone to open.

The big hit this year for Haylee was the Princess dresses Grandma got her. She loves to wear her Snow White costume and only takes it off to sleep. She no longer has to play dress up with random items. She is a true Princess now!

That night it was back to our house to open stockings. One last sweet surprise to end the wonderful day!

Then it's off to bed.

That's how our Christmas went this year. Absolutely perfect!

Natalee Update

We got to see our sweet little girl today. Everything checked out perfectly. She is growing and developing normal and right on track. We got to watch her being silly. She was sticking out her tongue and trying to suck on her fingers. She weighs about 1 lb. as of now which doesn't explain why I weigh 14 lbs. more! Ok, I know all the other stuff weighs something but I couldn't believe it. With Haylee I gained 33 lbs. so I'm anxious to see how much I'll gain the 2nd time around. I seem to be getting bigger faster.

My next appointment is January 27th and I will get my glucose test. Yippee. Love those blood draws.

Christmas Traditions

One of the traditions we have in our family is to make decorate a gingerbread house. Josh puts the house together and Haylee (with the help of both Josh and I) decorates it. This year I think Haylee was more interested in eating all the candy then putting it on the house.

Oh, and all the candy the ended up on the floor? It wasn't there more than 2 seconds.

We all had fun, and the gingerbread house turned out adorable!

Another tradition we have (that I carried over from my childhood) is that every year Haylee & Jackson (and all future children) get a new ornament for the tree. Haylee enjoyed putting her new "3" ornament, for her "3rd" Christmas, on the tree.

Other traditions we have in our family include-

*Buying Haylee a new snow globe every year. This year we got her a Snoopy snow globe because she fell in love with Charlie Brown's Christmas. We try to get her one that has something to do with one of her favorite things that year.

*Haylee gets new pj's to wear Christmas Eve, and they are usually Christmasy.

*And of course we attempt to go see Santa. Which this year was a success!

We also started some new traditions this year-

*Fred (the elf) joined us this Christmas to make sure Haylee behaved and then he reported back to Santa. He was a little mischievous himself getting into things. I kept up with this for only about a week, but I wish I would have done more. There is always next year!

*We wrote Santa a letter telling him what Haylee would like for Christmas this year. And to everyone's my surprise, she got a letter back from Santa. I thought this was most thoughtful thing. The fact the someone took the time to do this amazed me.

*Also we left cookies out for the first time for Santa. Haylee liked putting them on the Santa plate, but she thinks Jackson ate them.

Traditions that my side of the family have (most I have blogged about) that we have fun doing each year are-

*Looking at Christmas lights.

*Going to the Celebration of Christmas.

*Mother-Daughter baking day. Okay, so maybe we all don't enjoy this, but I sure do.

*Zoo lights. We usually do this after Christmas.

What are your Christmas traditions?

Celebration of Christmas

Monday night we went to the Celebration of Christmas at Phoenix First Assembly Church. We have been going to this show for years and it's usually a lot of fun. This year, they switched some things around and we were fortunate to even be able to get in but we had to sit in the 3rd balcony and we could barely see. The girls had a lot of fun and were dancing every time a song came on. Haylee loved all the animals of course, the zebra, elephant, tiger, donkey, and the camels in the live nativity scene.

Before the show started we got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. This was Haylee's 3rd time sitting on Santa's lap this year. It's a good thing she likes him!

They also had other little displays set up for photos too so the girls rode in the sleigh, and stood by the gingerbread house.

We had fun, but if we go again we will definitely buy the reserve seats down front. It's always been free all these years, but not anymore!

Mother-Daughter Baking

Saturday was our annual Mother-Daughter baking day. We started at 10am and didn't finish until about 5:30pm. I was so exhausted and my feet were killing me from standing on the tile all day long. We accomplished everything we set out to do and made 9 different things! We made man's cookies, coconut macaroons, spritz cookies, magic cookie bars, peanut butter chocolate bars, brownies, fudge, chocolate covered pretzels, and haystacks. And we double and tripled some recipes to have enough to go around! It was a fun day. I look forward to the day that Haylee can bake with us too!

On Sunday we took Haylee to Broadway Palm to see Frosty the Snowman. We have been taking Haylee to see the Children's Theatre shows since she was about 6 months old. She loves them and they even keep her attention. It's a really fun time and you get lunch there too.

I have been good this year remembering one of my advent calendars. I filled it with chocolate bells and everyday Haylee will get her stool and ask what day it is. After I show her, she'll open the door and get the candy. It plays several different Christmas songs and has some animated figurines and she loves it.

Lastly, I had to share Haylee's "new look". Ever since I put a pillow in her big girl bed she wakes up with the funniest bed head. I get a kick out of it so I had to take a picture one morning.

Christmas Lights

One of our family traditions has been getting together and looking at Christmas lights. This year we started at Chris's house. If you haven't seen his wonderful display you need to go. He is very talented and has put together a display with lights performing to music and even has bubbles and snow. We just love going there and the little kids loved the snow! He was even featured on TLC's Invasion of the Christmas Lights this year.

After Chris's house, we went to this neighborhood where every single house in the circle is decorated. It's fun to walk around and see it all. One house even turned their backyard into Bethlehem and told the story of Jesus birth.

Our last stop this year was Val Vista Lakes. We got to sit on Santa's lap and Haylee was excited.

Nothing like some good ol' Christmas lights to get you in the holiday spirit!

Santa Baby

I was so proud of Haylee when I took her to the mall Friday to see Santa. We waited in line for an hour an the whole time I heard, "he's not scary" and "I wanna sit on your lap." So I was all prepared to be in the picture with her since I could tell she was scared. We walked up to Santa and he told her he loved her reindeer shirt and that he might use that reindeer for his sleigh. He said, "can I see that reindeer?" and put his arms out and she went right to him and sat on his lap. I couldn't believe it! I was in shock. She got her picture taken then before he could ask her what she wanted for Christmas, she told him, "I want toys!" He then asked her what kind of toys and she told him, "books, a camera and bubbles, and candy." She cracks me up. Santa told her he couldn't promise to bring all that because it wouldn't be a surprise, but that he will come to her house on Christmas Eve when she is sleeping. Haylee was okay with that and told him bye. He was a really good Santa and spent quality time with Haylee. He kept hugging her and she was totally cool with it. After we left I kept hearing, "see, he's nice!" I'm glad Haylee likes Santa now....at least this year!

I love how the 1st year she was as happy as can be, then last year she was terrified, and this year she liked him again.

Dress Up

Haylee's new favorite thing to do is dress up. It started with her getting into the big bag of clothes I had bought her at Kohl's for next summer. She'd wear the spaghetti strap shirts as skirts. Now she's always wearing her mittens (and sometimes ski hat), a dress over her pj's or her Nemo costume, and now her Minnie Mouse ears. And the shoes are a must! She wears those from the time she gets up till the time she goes to bed. Silly Girl.

Past The Half Way Mark

I'm now officially past the half way mark of being pregnant! The beginning was rough but things are a lot better now. Our little girl is growing and moving around like crazy. I've been able to feel her for about 4 weeks now and Josh finally felt her squirming Saturday. She must have known it was her Daddy's hand because she put on a show flipping, kicking and dancing all around for a few minutes. We have been able to feel her a lot earlier than we did with Haylee. I think I'm getting bigger a lot faster with Natalee than I did with Haylee too. It's funny how these pregnancies continue to be so different yet I have been carrying girls both times. I feel so blessed to have had 20 weeks with this sweet baby and I look forward to (less than) 20 more!

Christmas Pictures

On Saturday we got our Christmas pictures taken. We've had the same photographer at JcPenny's since Haylee was 3 months old and she's the best. These are just a few of my favorites.

A Glimpse of Christmas

I love Christmas time. The holiday cheer, baking with my mom, the decorations, and shopping! One of my favorite things to do is sit in the front room with the Christmas tree and fireplace and just relax. I think I need to do it more often.

Upstairs I have this little fiber optic tree I bought when I moved into my 1st house. After Josh and I got a big tree I took it over to my Nana's house for her to use. Since she passed away I've used it as a "Nana Memorial" tree and hung some of her ornaments on there and put her Hershey collection around it.

I have several other decorations through out the house and of course, the outside can be seen from space. I love Christmas time.

The 2 Year Old Transition(s)

Right around the time Haylee was turning 2 I started thinking about all the changes that come with being 2. Out of the 3 major changes, I thought ditching the binky would be the easiest, so I started with that. Piece of cake. One day when I put her down for a nap I just didn't give it to her. She cried a little but by the next day she didn't mention it anymore. It helped she only had her binky to sleep in the first place.

Next up would be the dreaded potty training. I started at the end of June just introducing her to it. At first she didn't get it so I stopped and waited a couple weeks. Haylee is very stubborn and will not do anything until she wants to or until she is ready. Over the next couple months it was an off and on ordeal as I waited for her to be ready. One day she just decided to go and ever since she has done amazing. We have very few accidents and she goes completely in the potty now (even #2).

Lastly, we would take off the front of her crib to make her a big girl bed. I waited to do this until she actually tried getting out, but that never happened. Instead, I want her to be ready and comfortable before her little sister arrives so this past Wednesday we did the transition. The first day (both nap and night time) she cried a little and was scared but ever since since she hasn't cried. It's a little harder to put her down now because she'll want water, to go potty, cuddle etc. but once I leave her room she's fine. I have to laugh-I told her not to get out of bed before calling for mom or dad, and especially not to get out of bed at night, so everytime she wakes up I hear, "mom, can I please get out of my big girl bed on my own?" She is too cute.

Hooray Haylee for being a big girl now!!!

The New Man in Town

This is Fred. He is here with us until Christmas Eve. His job is to watch every little boy and girl in our house and report back to Santa. Of course, he isn't so well behaved himself. He seems a little mischevious and sometimes gets into things when Daddy leaves for work (and wakes him up). This idea came for the Magic Elf company but we got our elves from Terry's Village. This is such a fun tradition that we decided to start this year.

This is Fred when he arrived at our house.

He came with some treats and a letter from Santa explaining why he was here.

One morning we woke up to find Haylee's clothes thrown all over her room. Fred had been playing dress up.

Another morning we found him wrapping gifts. He even had a Mr. Potato Head Santa for Haylee.

The morning we left for Disneyland Fred was in Haylee's suitcase. He didn't want us to leave him behind. He brought her some Disney activity/color books to keep her busy in the car.

Besides the fun Fred brings to our home, and seeing Haylee's face when we find him each morning, the best part is when Haylee isn't behaving and I remind her Fred is watching her. She straightens up real fast!