Christmas Fun

Yesterday I had a baby shower to go to and since things with the holidays have been crazy, I was running a bit late. Luckily I was able to find a brownie mix in the cupboard because I was suppose to take brownies. Hailee loves helping in the kitchen so I let her help me make the brownies. I left her with the brownie bowl and spoon and went to finish my hair. Soon she came into the bathroom and I saw her cute little face all covered with chocolate (not to mention her shirt and pants.) When I told her she had chocolate on her face she stuck her tongue out and licked all around her face. So any part of her face that was chocolate was just because her tongue wasn't quite long enough to get it. It made me laugh. After a quick face wash and outfit change for her, we were ready to go.

Todd just has one more final to take HOORAY! That is one thing I won't miss with Todd graduating. I think I stress more about finals then he does. This is not to say that Todd doesn't study or take them seriously. He works very hard, but for him it's just a game or competition if you will. Not a competition with his classmates, but with the test and the professor. He loves it. He is the only person I know that is actually smiling/excited to go take a test when I drop him off at the testing center. It was the strangest thing to me when we first got married, it just seems unnatural to me to be excited about taking a test. I have to say that I am so proud of him, he has worked really hard and done well. Even with a health disadvantage he continues to do well. After today it will just be family time. Hailee and I are looking forward to it.

Mall Shopping

I am one of those people who try their hardest to avoid the Mall and other major shopping areas the month of December. Yesterday I remembered why. They shopping part wasn't so bad, it was the parking lot after that drove me crazy. Everyone is in a hurry, and for some reason people forget to be courteous while driving in the mall parking lot. Oh well we survived and I finished my Christmas shopping for Todd. I am so excited! Now if I can get Hailee to keep them a secret, she has a really hard time keeping secrets for Todd. She has already told him one things we got for him (the thing we bought last week), she was just too excited.

We did have some funny moments. On our way I was asking Hailee what she wanted to get for her dad. Here was here list. 1. A new house 2. A new car 3. A tree. Hmmm, not quite in the budget and the tree she wanted to get was just way too big, it was in someone's yard.

Here are some funny moments we had a the mall.

1. Discovering Disney store. They recently opened a Disney store in the mall. It was the first time Hailee had even seen a Disney store. The though that came to my head was the line from "The night before Christmas" "Visions of Sugar Plums danced in their head." But in Hailee's case if was visions of disney princess dancing in her head. It was so cute to see the joy in her face.

2. B-line for the shoes. Well the whole reason for our trip to the mall was to find something for Todd so out our way to a store for him. While walking Hailee saw a little kiosk with specialty children things. What caught my precious little 3 year olds attention, none other than shoes. She is going to have a serious shoe addiction when she gets older. I guess I can't complain because she comes by it naturally. She is such a cute shopper. After we found the shoes she was really good at helping me pick something out for Todd, she is quite opinionated when it comes to colors and things.

3. Wishing for a dog. At the mall they have a few fountains and Hailee noticed there was money in them. She thought it would be fun to get the money out. When I told her that money was for wishing she wanted to make a wish. She threw in her nickel and said "Oh I wish for a dog." Then looked at me and said "Mom I wished for a dog." I hope we don't have a little girl who is too disappointed on Christmas morning.

4. Music fun. Well by then end of our trip she was ready to go home. We got in the car and of course it took forever to get out of the parking lot. After a couple of minutes she asked that we turn off the Christmas music. "Mom that music is making me sick." I couldn't help but laugh.

After we picked up Todd I had a Relief Society dinner to go to so they went Christmas shopping together. They had such a fun time and Hailee saw Santa Claus for the first time (poor child, I really try hard to avoid the mall). Todd said it was so funny this is how their conversation went.

T: Hailee come over here and look at this.
H: What is it dad.....oh it's Santa.
H: (After a slight pause) What is he doing here?
T: Just talking to kids. Do you want to talk to him?
H: No, I don't think so.

Todd said they didn't see him until the end of their shopping trip and she was really tired after running all around the mall and going up and down the escalators. He also said that she wanted to listen to music again. Her new favorite song is "Away in a Manger" or as she says it "the Catta looey song" She is trying to say "The Cattle are Lowing." That part is her favorite. It's cute to hear her sing it. So overall a very successful shopping day for our family.

The Nutcracker

Here are some pictures from Hailee's ballet class performance. They did a little dance to a song from the Nutcracker. It was really fun. Hailee was excited because Todd got to come and watch. They are so good with the kids and Hailee is learning so much and more importantly having a great time.

D - O - G

So I discovered that Hailee knows how to spell "dog." As I've been talking on the phone to people I've been telling them they story of Hailee wanting a dog for Christmas. Since I didn't really want to bring up a dog again I've been spelling it when talking to people on the phone. A few days ago I asked Hailee what she wanted for Christmas and she responded "a D - O - G." Thinking that she was just repeating what she had heard from me I asked her what a D - O - G was, to which she responded

H: A dog mom.
N: How did you know D - O - G was a dog
H: Mom, dog starts with D and ends in G.

Well she's right, but I'm not afraid to spell anything in front of her, I might have to resort to using foreign languages. Too bad Todd speaks Korean and I speak Portuguese. It worked out much better for my parents since they both spoke Spanish. Luckily now she knows we are not getting a dog until we move to Oregon. She is counting down the days now until she can get a dog. Last night she was a little sad as she was falling asleep and I asked her what was wrong. She said, "Oh mom, I just miss my dog so much."


In other Hailee news she read "Zac the Rat" all by herself. It's one of those first readers with simple-easy-to-sound-out-words. She is getting really excited about reading. She first read it with me and was so excited that she had to go and read it to her dad. It was so cute to see.

My other favorite story of the week was Hailee and her gloves. I just got her some new little gloves for when we are just running around and not really playing in the snow. It is her first pair of gloves, she is just used to having mittens. Well at first she would get her fingers mixed up in the different finger spots. One time when we were struggling she said "Oh mom, these little piggies are so confused."

Christmas troubles

Santa might be in a little trouble this year. This is the first year that Hailee is really getting into Christmas. Last year she was excited for Christmas morning, but there was of the anticipation excitement before Christmas morning. She just woke up Christmas morning and was excited to see presents for her under the tree. This year we have been talking about Christmas for at least a month. Well last week we discovered that Hailee has decided that she wants a dog for Christmas. After playing with my cousins dog, Hailee told me that she wanted to ask Santa for a dog for Christmas. I told her we would need to talk about it. That night I had Todd talk to her about it and he was confident that it had all been taken care of. They talked about how we didn't have room for a dog.

Two days later I asked Hailee what she wanted for Christmas. She told me that she wanted a dog and to not worry because she would ask Santa to bring a bed too. So that night we talked about it again. She had an answer for everything we threw at her. When we asked what else she wanted for Christmas she responded that she already had enough toys and that she really wanted a dog. Todd brought up the idea that we don't technically have a yard for a dog. That didn't bother Hailee in the least. She could just make a yard, all she needs is some wood, dirt and sticks. At the end of our conversation she said, don't worry dad I will just ask Santa Claus.
So after feeling like a horrible parent and worrying that my child's first Santa Christmas was going to be ruined I asked my sister for some advise. She suggested that I take her to the toy store and she if she got interested in any other toys. It worked! We went online toy shopping and she got excited for some Charlie and Lola things. Later when we wrote a letter for Santa Clause she wrote about Charlie and Lola things, a jump rope, and a jump rope for her baby sister. (No this is not an announcement, she is just excited about having a baby sister). Later we did talk some more about the dog and decided that when we move to Oregon will be a much better time for a dog. I think she still would love a dog, but now at least I have her excited about something else as well.

Todd and Hailee
Before going to bed we interrupt Todd's studying so we can read our scriptures and have any family discussions that need to happen (like not being able to get a dog until we move to Oregon. This is Hailee's favorite time of night. (BTW Todd is wearing a white shirt, not his underwear.)

Part of Hailee's letter to Santa (this one was actually to Santa's reindeer). She wrote her name on the top. She wrote her name for the first time in Arizona at Thanksgiving. We were all writing letters to my cousin that is on a mission and the kids were busy drawing pictures. Well Hailee decided that was the perfect time to write her name for the first time. We sent the letter to my cousin and I've been trying to get her to write it ever since. But if I suggest it she refuses to do it. It has to be all her idea or it's not going to happen, gosh she has a lot of her father in her. She thinks her name is spelled Hialee, at least she is getting all the letter in there. When I told her the A was in the wrong place she looked down and said, not it's just fine mom, see (pointing to her name) the A is right there. What could I say, the A was right there so I just praised her for writing her name and she finished up her letter to Santa's reindeer.

A week in review

Since I haven't been as good at posting recently I'm just going to write about some of my favorite Hailee stories this week.

Snow Report: By the end of the week our snow had almost disappeared. Hailee was very vigilant in checking the snow and letting me know the progress it was making. She was very sad that it was disappearing. It finally all melted yesterday, but we woke up to snow this morning so she was very pleased. One morning this week when we were taking Todd to school she said "Dad the snow is all melting." Todd, not realizing what a sad event this was for our little girl, responded, "That's good Hailee." To which she responded "Dad, it's not good. The snow IS melting, that is not good." She couldn't believe that snow melting was considered to be good by her dad.

Ikea Chocolate: So I have discovered that Ikea chocolate squares are great for bribing Hailee. She'll do almost anything for a chocolate square. One night I was getting her ready for bed and I was trying to get her to blow her nose (she hates getting her nose cleaned out). Our conversation went like this...
N: "Hailee I will give you an ikea chocholate."
H: No thank you
N: I will give you two
H: How about three. I will do it for three.
Already learning how to bargain at the age of three.

Sisters: Hailee has decided that her cousins are also her brothers and sisters. I guess it rubbed off on Cambria. Over Thanksgiving they had such a good time playing together. Stacie told me that the other day Cambria asked about Hailee (she is getting tired of only having brothers).
Cambria: Mom, Hailee is my cousin and my sister, right?
Stacie: Yeah I guess so
C: If Hailee is my sister how come she doesn't live with us.
S: Well sweetie I think her mom would miss her too much if she lived with us.
C: Her mom can come live with us too
S: Well I think her dad would miss them too much.
C: Mom, he could come too. (with a voice like "duh mom, they all could come"
Wouldn't it be nice if life was really as simple as 3 and 4 year olds make it.

Sleep Talking/Dreaming: It looks as if Hailee has inherited some sleep things from both her parents. On my side of the family everyone either walks in their sleep or talks in their sleep. When my mom was growing up in Mexico City she slept walk out of the house and walked down to her bishops house, squeezed through the bars and tried walking inside. Luckily it was her bishops house so they just called my grandpa. After that my grandpa put chairs in front of her so he would hear if she tired leaving again. Todd on the other hand has very exciting/adventurous dreams (I dream about very boring day to day things.) So the other night I was up late working on a few things when I hear Hailee talking in her sleep. She was laughing and having, what sounded like, a very funny dream. A little while later I heard her get a little sad so I went into check on her. She was out of bed and had tripped over her little piano. I think it kind of woke her up so she was a little sad. So far my favorite dream she has had was the one when the Alligator was trying to make her grow whiskers and the tooth fairy came and saved her and flew her away and the Alligator was snapping up at her. What an imagination.

Sleeping Beauty: The last couple of nights Hailee was wanted to play Sleeping Beauty before going to bed. She assigns us who we're going to be and takes turns. We are either assigned to be the princess, the prince, or the dragon. She likes reenacting the final scene where the prince defeats the dragon and wakes up the princess with a kiss. Todd likes to give her a hard time and pretends to be a prince that is afraid of the dragon, or a dragon that doesn't want to fight the prince, or a princess (yes even Todd takes his turn being assigned the princess) who doesn't want to sleep and miss out on the fun. Every time Todd gets out of line with the story Hailee is quick to correct him. Last night it was so funny. I was the dragon and he was the prince.
T: But I'm afraid of that big mean dragon
H: Price just fight him, I'm going to sleep
T: You're just going to sleep and leave me to fight him
H: Yes, it's okay, you are just fine...go ahead, I'm sleeping
T: But that dragon is so mean
H: It's fine price, just fight him them come give me a kiss.
It's so funny to hear them go on and on that way.

All Done

All done with the MBA Cookbook, I'm now just getting started on Christmas. Well first I need to clean up three days worth "of not really paying attention to what Hailee was playing with while I was trying to get the cookbook finished up." Yes she is very good at keeping herself busy, I just wish she was better at keeping things clean while she did it. Still I can't really complain because she was very understanding while her mother was a little crazy. After a morning of playing and having a good time together I'm taking a moment to blog then we'll clean the house, go to ballet and get out our Christmas stuff out. I'm so excited!

Yesterday we did take a little time out to go to Krista's school. Krista is in a child development class and needed a little kid to come to school with her Hailee was more than excited about the chance to go to school just like her dad. All morning she had a million questions about what was going to happen. It was so cute she had to get her back pack all packed before we left and when we got to Krista's school she didn't even look back to see if I was still there. She had such a good time and had to show Todd all the different things she had done at school.

After school we stopped by Brenda's house just for a minute and Hailee finally conquered her fear of dogs. It's been a long process, but was sped up by visiting Freckles in St. George. At the beginning she wouldn't even be on the floor if she thought Freckles was in the house. By the end of our trip she was okay to be on the floor with him, and occasionally pet him if there was someone else by her. Then when we were playing in the snow the neighbors dogs came out, she got a little nervous and wanted to be held. I told her they were nice dogs like Freckles, to which she responded that they weren't as clever as Freckles. At Brenda's house Kelsey has a little pint size chihuahua dog named Sadie. She is seriously 2 pounds. Hailee has always been afraid of her, but Saturday she was a little more comfortable. She still didn't want to play with her, but she wasn't wanting her outside. On Wednesday after school she finally realized that a dog would be fun to play with. She enjoyed picking her up and giving her the bone and she even let Sadie lick her had. I don't think Sadie enjoyed it nearly as much as Hailee, but it was so cute to watch. She treated Sadie like one of her dolls. Now my little Hailee wants a Sadie dog of her own for Christmas. I told her to talk to her dad! Next time we're over I need to get pictures. It's quite funny to see.

Let it snow, let it snow...

Hailee catching snow on her tongue.

Hailee and Ruthann in the snow.

Okay I have to admit that waking up yesterday to the snow was very fun. I was a little sentimental and was thinking about when we move we probably won't have snow as often. I was thinking I might even miss it a little bit.

Hailee was, of course, so excited for the snow. I was even able to find all her snow clothes, minus one mitten. Ruthann came over and played with Hailee in the snow. I took pictures. It was so cute to see Hailee trying to catch falling snow flakes on her tounge and thoroughly enjoying every second of the snow. Just before going in she wanted to make a snow angel. I wasn't sure if she knew what to do, but before I knew it she had plopped down and started wiggling her arms and legs back and forth. Below I am posting a little video clip of Hailee making a snow angel.

Oh it was so beautiful day, snow covered trees and the whole world white. I was even enjoying it myself. That is, until that evening when I had to go and drive in it. I hate driving in the snow. It seems like every first big snow of the winter it takes the street cleaners about a day before they get on the ball. So after sliding all around town I was very glad to be safe and sound at home again.

Hailee playing in her "office"

The other day I was working and Hailee was playing by herself. She kept coming over the the printer and taking a piece of paper. After a while I started listening to what she was playing because she was going through a lot of paper and I was curious. She was playing office. She was interviewing her favorite princesses. I caught a little on video before she noticed me. She was asking them questions and then writing them down. She was saying things like "What is your name....Cinderella...Cinderella what....Cinderella Cunningham...okay Cinderella Cunningham (writing down on her paper)" This continued on and on through all her princesses. At the end of the video she was interviewing Jasmine next and when she turned around to call her over she noticed I was taking a video of her. She is such a busy little girl.

Job decision

Well after week of going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth again, we have made a decision on our job. Decisions are always a good thing but this was a really hard one. Both jobs were so good for different reasons. But after a lot of talking, and more talking, and more talking (between Todd and myself as well as Todd and the two companies), and a trip to the temple we decided to go with Intel.

So if you are interested in the Tillamook cheese factory, the place where they filmed the Goonies, or just want to come hang out in the rain you can come visit us in Portland. We are very excited. When we got home last night and told Hailee she was so excited. She just squealed with delight. Now all that is left is to finish school and get excited about the big move and the next step in our little family.

My little Pirate

So for the last few months Hailee has had an interest in Pirates. She gets excited if she notices pirate toys in the store and seeing them on TV. Charlie and Lola has an episode with Pirates in it so that is where I think she is getting it from. She has yet to see Pirates of the Caribbean (and she won't for a good number of years), but she has seen all they toys in the stores. A few days ago while I was working and she ways playing by herself, I turned around and she had her doll tied to the leg of the table and little sounds like "RRRRR" and "oh no" coming from that side of the room. Wondering what she was doing I asked her why her doll was tied to the leg of the table. She responded that her doll had been taken by pirates and they had tied her to the ship and were taking her so far away from her family. Oh her little imagination.

Well yesterday we were at Costco and waiting to pick up a pizza for dinner. I noticed an older gentleman walking by slowly and he had a black patch over one eye. Not really thinking much of it I looked down to make sure Hailee was still by me and not running off. When I looked down I saw her happily by me and then I saw her see the man with the black patch over his eye. She stopped dead and just stared in wonder while he passed her. As he passed she whispered "ooooooh, pirate." I about died, she didn't say it very loud, she was just exclaiming it to herself. I wish I could explain the look on her face. It was pure amazement, like "Oh my gosh they really do exist. I never though I would see a pirate this close before...." I sure her mind was just racing. I bent down and told her he wasn't a pirate, but there was no convincing her. In her mind she had just seen a real life pirate. I don't know if the gentleman heard her or not, but I hope if he did he wasn't offended.

Thanksgiving 2007

Parents: 2

+
Children: 9 (+7 spouses)
+
Grandchildren: 28 (+4 spouses)
+
Great-grandchildren: 5
=
a lot of fun!

My mom's parents just recently returned from being Temple presidents in Tuxtla Gutierrez so the whole family got together for Thanksgiving in Mesa. We were only missing Mickelle who is serving a mission in California at the moment. It was a lot of fun and we had a great time. It's the first time in years that we've all been together.

Day 1 - Picnic in the Park

We left at 4:00 in the morning to drove down to Mesa. From St. George we traveled in 3 cars and had a great time caravaning down. The kids slept until almost 8:00 a.m. That evening we all met at the park and had a picnic and took lots of family pictures to get us ready for the next day family pictures. My sisters and are were the oldest so it's fun to see how much my cousins have grown. They other funny thing about my mom's side of the family is the girls way out number the boys. There are 7 girls and 2 boys in my mom's family and 19 girl grandchildren and only 9 boy grandchildren. The first boy was grandchild #10. So for a while it was all girls.

The boys.

The girls

Feeding the ducks. Hailee had such a great time playing at the park.

Baby Derek and grandpa. Derek was so much fun.

After the picnic at the park we got to go pick up Todd. He flew in that night. Hailee fell asleep on the way there. After stopping off at Paula's house she still didn't wake up. We were there for a while and then I decided she wasn't going to wake up and I should put her in bed. We went back to the hotel and when we got in to the room she finally woke up enough to see her dad. After that she talked non stop until she had told him everything she had done in the past few days. It was so cute to hear. She was really excited to see her dad.

Day 2 - Thanksgiving Day

We took family pictures in the morning.

The Wagner family. top row: Grandma, Mom, Paula, Tami, Brenda, Carla, Jana, Shauna bottom row:
Kevin, Grandpa, Ted

The Mortensen family top row: Dad, Emily, Kristen bottom row: Todd, Hailee, Nicole, Mom, Deneille, Pat, Ethan, Ernie, Derek, Stacie and Cambria

Just the girls. Mom, Stacie, Nicole, Deneille, Kristen and Emily.

Then we got together at Paulas. The boys played football and we helped get dinner ready. Paula and Carla did such a great job with all the food. It was truly amazing. We went to Carla's church building to eat. The food was so good. All the Wagner traditions from pickled beets to avocado, tomato, cucumber salad. So yummy! (It's funny how so many of my family's traditions revolve around food, but eating Thanksgiving dinner brought back so many memories of my childhood.)

The kids writing letters to Mickelle. Everyone took a minute to write a note to her.

The Wagner talent show.

Ethan, Cambria and Hailee singing "Love is Spoken Here" for the talent show. It was cute.

Playing Family Jeopardy. Every time we get together Paula comes up with a family jepoardy game. It's always really fun.

Day 3 - Castles and Coasters

The next day the young cousins went to the Mesa temple to do baptisms. When they got back we went to a little amusement park called Castles and Coasters. It was a lot of fun. Small enough that we kept running into people and not crowded at all. It had a good variety of rides for little kids and bigger kids and even family rides.

We started off with Go-Carts. Hailee's cousin Cambria loved it, Hailee was a little nervous. Here is a picture of her and Todd trying to catch me. They did pass me later and Hailee was quite pleased to have won the race.

They also had a miniature golf course and Hailee loved it. We played two rounds during the day.
Hailee and Cambria on the Merry-Go-Round. With Cambria's help Hailee wasn't scared of the Merry-Go-Round. It's so good for her to play with older cousins.
That evening we celebrated everyone's birthday that Grandpa and Grandma had missed for the last four years. We ate tacos (another food tradition) and had a pinata. Hailee loved it.

Hailee was more excited about getting this piece of the pinata then getting the candy that fell to the ground. She thought it was a perfect party hat!

Ballet Class

It's been a little while since we've posted and my only excuse is that we've been busy. Todd had two more fly back interviews (with Intel and ConAgra) last week. So far we've heard back from Intel with a job offer so now we have two offers we are excited about and now I get to loose sleep at night until we decided which is the best for our family and Todd's career. We have to let both companies know by Nov. 30 and Dec. 1st so at least my sleepless nights won't last long and we should know where we are going by then. We are both very excited for everything.

Today we had ballet class for Hailee. Usually there are three little girls in her class, but today she was the only one. Hailee of course loved it and I was able to snap a few pictures. I wish I could have gotten more, but I didn't want to be too much of a distraction. Since there weren't any other kids running around the waiting area I got to watch and listen better than I have in the past. It's so cute to see what she is learning and how cute her teacher is with her. Usually she has a couple of girls in her class with her, but today she was all alone. I got a few pictures, but I didn't want to distract the class too much.

Congratulations Todd

Yesterday we found out some good news. Todd got a job offer from AT&T. It’s our first one and we are very excited. He left this morning for Portland to interview with Intel and he flies out Sunday to Omaha to interview with Conagra food. We should also hear more from HP sometime this month. They are still in the process of getting job hiring approval. Needless to say it’s continuing to be a very busy month.

We are very excited about the job offer from AT&T. They have a great Financial Leadership program. We would be in three different places in three years and Todd would get a great jump-start to his career.

Todd is so funny because after his interview last week he said he didn’t feel like he did as good on his presentation as he could have and to hear him tell the story he didn’t think they would be offering him a job at all. In fact every day since his interview he would always check his email and say “I still haven’t gotten a rejection letter from AT&T.” As the week went on and I heard more and more of the comments they were making to him I realized that it didn’t go as bad as he said it did. (Even though he felt that way, it wasn’t really the truth). We are so proud of him.

In other family news there really isn’t a lot going on. While Todd is gone Hailee and I just try to stay out of trouble. Hailee is really getting into Christmas this year. We were at the craft store and she tried convincing me that we needed to buy a Christmas tree right that minute. “Mom Christmas really is coming.” So it is, but I don’t think we need to get a tree right this minute. It will fun decorating the house this year with Hailee. When we go shopping now she says “Oh mom can we get this for Christmas, it is really coming.” She says that for everything we look at to breakfast cereal to Q-tips. It’s really quite entertaining.

Rise and Shout

Rise, all loyal Cougars and hurl your challenge to the foe.
We will fight, day or night, rain or snow.
Loyal, strong, and true
Wear the white and blue.
While we sing, get set to spring.
Come on, Cougars, it's up to you. Oh!

Rise and shout, the Cougars are out
along the trail to fame and glory.
Rise and shout, our cheers will ring out
As you unfold your vict'ry story.
On you go to vanquish the foe
for Alma Mater's sons and daughters.
As we join in song in praise of you our faith is strong.
We'll raise our colors high in the blue
And cheer our Cougars of BYU.

Hailee is in heaven. Dad is home and BYU football was playing at home. The weather was perfect, and if anything we were worried about not bringing sunscreen with us. Luckily we didn't get burned, and we had such a good time. It's so cute to see Todd and Hailee cheering together. My favorite is when the other team is on third down and a couple yards to go, they stomp their feet and cheer so loud. Hailee does exactly what Todd does. Then when BYU scores they sing the fight song together. Hailee has all of the chorus memorized and most of the first bit as well.

She has had a hard time leaving Todd alone since he got home. Just barely I heard her in the hallway outside the bathroom talking to him, "dad, are you coming out soon." Poor Todd can't even use the bathroom in peace. The football game was some good dad time.

This is my favorite picture of the day. It sums up how the game went. If BYU was on the field this is how Hailee and Todd looked. Such serious little BYU fans.

This picture was taken at half-time. It was such a beautiful fall day. The weather was perfect.

Ready

We are so ready for Todd to come home. I know, I am a big wimp, but I hate him being gone. The first night he was gone I was having a hard time getting Hailee to go to sleep, she kept getting up. After not getting much sleep the night before I couldn't figure it out. As soon as Todd called and said that he made it to New Jersey, she went right to sleep. I think she was waiting to see if he was coming home and once she got to talk to him she decided it was okay to go to sleep.

The next night she wanted to sleep in her bed, not mine. When I asked her why she informed me that my bed was too big and she liked her little one. After the night before I let Hailee call Todd when she was going to sleep and she went to bed much easier for me. We also discovered the Superman blanket. Hailee has the hardest time keeping a blanket on all night. She always kicks them off as soon as you put them on here, even if she is asleep. Last night the superman blanket was down so she wanted to use that one. To my surprised she kept it on all night long.

In the morning at about 6:30 a.m. she woke up with a bad dream. What does my little girl have a bad dream about, someone putting ice cream in a cup. She kept saying over and over "You don't drink ice cream...it goes in a bowl, not it a cup. You don't drink it." Over and over again. I guess it makes me feel good that she doesn't have serious fears, just fears about someone putting ice cream in a cup. I finally got her awake enough to realize it was a bad dream and she went back to sleep.

When she woke up all the way a few hours later we were laying down in her room talking. She usually like me to cuddle her and chat before getting up all the way, it's a nice time in the morning for us. Well today she was very thoughtful and then she asked me...

H: Mom what color is this paint
N: The paint in your bedroom
H: Yes
N: It's called chocolate froth
H: Hmmm..... it's kind of boring
N: You don't like the color
H: It's just kind of boring
N: What color would you like
H: (thinking for a minute) I think pink would be a good color
N: Pink
H: Yeah, pink would be nice color.

I guess she is starting to get some opinions of her own when it comes to decorating. We finished the second coat in the bathroom last night, so that probably had something to do with our conversation. We'll have to talk to Todd about the paint color for her room.

Our last funny story of the day was Hailee wanted to do something and I kept telling her no. Of course she kept asking to do it. Finally in frustration I said, "Hailee listen to your mother, I said no." To which she responded "Mom, listen to your child, I said yes." Then she just started laughing. She can be such a tease.

A final picture to end today's post. Our condo complex has some amazing trees. In the spring they get the prettiest blossoms and in the fall they get some beautiful fall colors. I just love the changing of the seasons for spring and fall. This is the tree just outside our big window. We have been enjoying a nice warm fall lately and have been taking advantage of playing outside. Soon enough it will be too cold to play outside. That is always a sad change of the weather for me. The weather man said it would last for the next little while, so I am hoping he is right.

Mom is this Halloween?

Well yesterday after we dropped Todd off at the airport we went to Lisa's house. She invited us to go Trunk-or-treating with her ward. It was so much fun, and nice to have something to do when Todd is gone. Hailee decided she wanted to be a duck this time. The costume was a little small, but she loved it. Half way through the cars Hailee turned to me and asked. "Mom is this Halloween?" When I responded yes she said "oh I like Halloween" She was a cute little trick-or-treater. She caught on really quickly she would go up to the car and say trick-or-treat and then get her candy and say "thank you." I have to say trunk-or-treating is really the way to go. It's so much quicker than the traditional trick or treating, we were done by 6:30. Afterwards we went to the Malt shop with Lisa's family. The girls had a great time playing together, so no one wanted to eat. That is until we mentioned there would be no ice cream if they didn't eat their food. Then they all sat down and ate their hamburgers. I forgot my camera, but Lisa took some pictures, so as soon as I get them from her I will post them.

The picture came out a little blury, but I'm posting it anyway. Hailee is a duck, Alicia is a rocket, and Averi is a hula girl. They were so cute.

Thinking...

We had a funny day yesterday. Todd was at school late taking his last midterm/final. For dinner I was making avocado, tomato, and chicken sandwiches. Hailee informed me that she didn't want a sandwich. She just wanted a tomato. I don't know of another child that will eat a tomato like an apple. I discovered this when she was about 18 months old. I had her on the counter when I was making dinner. When I turned around she had two tomatoes in her hands eating them. She loves them. So for dinner last night she first ate an entire tomato and got very offended when I suggested I cut it up for her.

Hailee at 18 months eating tomatoes. I had to be careful in the grocery store as well she would just grab them and start eating.

After dinner we still had a while before we could go pick up Todd so Hailee decided she wanted to play in her kitchen. She wanted me to come in her room with her. "Come on mom we need to do some making" I was wondering what we were going to be 'making.' But then she informed me that she was the "Maker." Instead of baking she was calling it making. It was so cute watching her 'make' things from macaroni and cheese to cookies. Such a funny little girl. Then since she was the 'maker,' she was also the mommy and informed me that I was 'hailee claire.'

It was quite late when we went to go get Todd and I was sure she would fall asleep in the car. But I think she was just too excited to see Todd that she couldn't sleep. When we got home I let her stay in bed with Todd so she could have a little bit of dad time before Todd left for New Jersey. Todd had a few more things to do before going to bed and I was getting laundry done so he could pack. I told Hailee to lay down and start thinking about going to bed. After a couple of minutes she jumped up and said "I'm all done thinking about going to bed mom. I want to get up." She got up to grab a few toys to bring back and share with Todd. Well we were all able to get everything done and then I got her to bed. Hailee slept really well, she was SO tired. But I was glad she got a little dad time. Just before going to bed she snuggled up by Todd and asked him to tell her a story. It was so cute to watch him tell her a story. He always comes up with fun little stories where Hailee is the heroine, who always out smarts the dragon. They have such a cute little relationship.

Growing Up

2 days old

1-year-old

2-years-old

3-years-old

My little girl is growing up. It's a sad thing for me, but at the same time I love seeing her do and learn new things.

Todd wasn't feeling well this weekend so we stayed home and had a nice quiet weekend. By Sunday afternoon Hailee had had enough of our nice quiet weekend and wanted to do something fun. Sundays are hard days to keep her occupied while still having a quiet Sunday. Well she decided she wanted to play a game. She loves to get the games like Monopoly and play with all the little pieces. So I decided since up to that point she had been such a good girl I decided to let her pick. She picked the Uno-Attack game. So as we got it out I decided to see if she could play. She loved it. I was very excited because it's a good way to practice numbers. I was really impressed with how quickly she caught on to the concept. The only thing that was a little off was she loved it when she got to press the button and tons of cards would shoot out. But she would always manage to get a "switch hands" card when she would have a lot of cards. I usually was a turn or two away from winning and then she could get a switch hands card and win. She loved the switch hands cards. I always knew as soon as she got one, she would get so excited and say "Mom I got a red switch card." She would play it down and demand a switch. She is such a funny girl. She loves to play and she got excited when I would win or when she would. We ended up playing 8 or 9 games.

After playing Uno it was time for bed and Hailee has come down with a little cold. She is really quite sweet about it, and doesn't really complain. Sunday night she woke up quite a few times and was wanting a drink of water. I was a little concerned that she would have a little accident since she was drinking so much water. I hoped that it wouldn't traumatize her. She has never had an accident at night before. (Hailee was really easy to potty train, at a very young age (6-8 months or so) she was waking up dry and she usually only had 3 or so wet diapers a day. It took a day and a half to potty train her and that was just because she wanted to stay in diapers so every time she needed to pee she would beg me for a diaper.) She woke up fine on Monday and then last night again she was drinking a lot of water during the night. At about 1:30 I heard her from her room saying "Mommy" ... "Mommy" When I went in there she said "I need to go potty." I carried her into the bathroom and put her on the potty while she was still half asleep. She went and then I carried her right back to bed and she was asleep instantly. I was impressed that she could wake her self up to go to the bathroom. What a big girl.

Like I said at the beginning, it's amazing to see her growing up and doing so many big girl things, but there is still a part of me that misses my baby. I guess that is why we have pictures and videos because they don't stay small forever.

Playing in the leaves

We have been enjoying the warm fall days in Utah. I think weather in Utah in the Spring and Fall is the craziest time. It can snow one day and the next day be in the upper 60's. Well I'm not complaining about the warm weather. We've had some beautiful days and according to the weather man it should be nice for at least another week.

I wanted to take some pictures of Hailee out in the leaves so I got her all dressed up in her cute little dress from Louise. I just loved the purple and orange. Well I just wanted her to pose, but she had other ideas. There is a pile of leaves out in front of our condo and anytime we are coming or going she likes to run and jump in the leaves and then run and catch up. Well as soon as we got outside she ran and jumped in the pile of leaves. Luckily the dress is just fine and we did get some cute pictures of the leaves. Hailee loves to play in the leaves and we are taking advantage of the nice warm weather before the snow really comes.

Happy Halloween...a little bit early

Yesterday we had our church "mom and tots" group Halloween party. Hailee had a blast. We were kind of lazy when it came to costumes. I just pulled out the Halloween box and let her choose what she wanted to be. She had a great time trying on all of the costumes and she just couldn't decided what she wanted to be. Luckily most of the costumes still fit her (they are just a little bit shorter).

Going around the witches hats for the cake walk. Hailee loved walking around to the music.

Nichols was helping Hailee go fishing for spiders. Nichols is in my Primary class and was just so sweet with Hailee.

Hailee and I at the party.

At the ward party she decided she wanted to be the queen of hearts. She was even more excited when I put on my card costume and started singing the "painting the roses red" song. She had a great time at the party. They decorated cookies, colored spider picture, had a cake walk , went fishing for spiders, and had a M&M toss. She loved the cake walk and fishing for spiders.

Hailee's Ballet class. Her teacher is really cute with the little girls. Hailee just loves her.

After the party we had ballet. For ballet they were suppose to dress up for class in their halloween costumes. She chose to be Cinderella for her ballet class. It was really cute to see her whole class dress up. She loves going to ballet.

Todd was out pretty late last night so this morning when she woke up she came into our room and told Todd everything about the church party and ballet class. It's so cute to hear her explain things. Here is an example of their conversation about decorating cookies.

Hailee decorating cookies

H: First I told my mom I wanted to make a cookie so she got one and put it on my plate and then I took the knife and put it in the at pink thing (the frosting was orange, but it was really light so she called it pink) and put that pink stuff on my cookie and spread it all around.
T: Then did you eat it
H: No dad! (shocked) We don't eat the cookie yet. Next we have to put on the chocolate. (they had little chocolate chips to decorate the pumpkin cookies)
T: Oh, okay
H: Then we get the chocolate from the bowl and put it on our plate.
T: then did you eat it
H: No we don't eat it yet we have to put the chocolate on the cookie. So we then put the chocolate on the plate and then put the choclate on the cookie. That is how we do it dad.
T: Then do you get to eat it.
H: No not yet. we brought them home to share.

It's so cute to hear her describe her day to Todd. For ballet she has to demonstrate what she learned and showed the prizes she got at the Halloween party.