Princess Hailee to the rescue

Yesterday Hailee was wanting to play princesses in her room. Once we got inside she locked the door and said "Oh no that mean dragon locked us in mom, what are we going to do." I told her I didn't know. Then she said, "Our prince will come and save us....oh wait our prince is at school." Not sure what to do about this dilemma she decided it was lunch time and we better make some food. So after making a delicious meal she got back to thinking of a solution to getting out. Deciding that our prince would take too long to come home and rescue us (it was still a couple of hours before Todd was due home) she set to work finding stuff around the room. Once she found the wooden dowel used for our Halloween costumes she was ready to go fight the dragon. She found a key to "un-lock" the door and she was off fighting with that dragon. What a smooth little rescue from my little princess. Hailee's not one to sit and wait around for long. I love seeing her imagination and her independent spirit at work.

Cooking Fun

Hailee has always enjoyed cooking with me, but she is now wanting to do more and more while we cook. The other night we made Portuguese Pasta and she helped me chop up the green pepper and chicken. I cut it in strips then she used a butter knife to cut it up in small pieces. It has always been fun to cook with her, but now she is getting more helpful.

My sister Deneille and her husband Patt came up this past weekend to work on some projects with me. We, of course, had to have some fun as well. We went to IKEA and made a fun Korean dinner. While we were checking out at IKEA Todd and Hailee went to go get ice cream. Todd asked if Hailee had fun at IKEA to which she responded, "Yes, my mom loves IKEA." She is so sweet to love doing the things I do. So after our fun deals we found at IKEA, that night we made Korean food. Patt said he just came up for the food, so I hope he liked it, we were working on a school project for Deneille. We made two things that I already knew how to make, but then I tired a new dish. It's a potato noodle dish called Japchae. I was excited that it actually turned out and tasted okay. Todd said he would marry me all over again because it tasted so good. So if anyone is interested in a great asian pasta let me know and I'll send the recipe. We had a lot of fun with Patt and Deneille. Later Sunday we got to go up to Kristy's house to have dinner with her and Ruthann and Todd's cousins Jeff, Susie, and Rachelle. It is always so much fun to get together with family.

On a sad note, President Hinckley passed away last night. He was such a sweet and amazing man, as well as the prophet of our church. I never got to meet him personally, but in listening to him speak and reading his words I really felt the love he had for me as well as everyone, whether they were members of the LDS faith or not. I am sure there was a very sweet homecoming for him on the other side. That is a very happy thought indeed, he will be missed, but I am happy he is reunited with his sweet wife.

Favorite moments

My grandparents from Mexico have been up here visiting for a while. They have been on a mission for the last 4 years, and we are so excited to have them around again. Hailee had such a great time getting to know them, chatting with Grandma and playing with Grandpa. My favorite was watching them play basketball, horsey, and tickling each other.


I just love how having a child around is just constant entertainment. There is never a dull moment. Here are some of the highlights.

• I was trying to bribe Hailee to go to the bathroom when we were at the doctors office (she was dancing around like crazy, but not wanting to go because she was sure that she would miss something). I told her I would give her a dollar, to which she responded "Mom, I already have a dollar." Later when I was filling up her bath she wanted more bath water so she said "Mom I will give you a dollar." I guess turn around is fair play.
  
• Speaking of turn around. One night when she was getting ready for bed she was playing "farm" and she had to get all her animals to bed before she went to sleep. She started running around crazy and saying things like "I don't have time for this." I had to think for a minute of where she was getting that from until I remembered I say that all the time. When I am in a hurry and trying to leave and Hailee is doing her best to be slow I always say "Hailee we don't have time for this, we need to hurry." Looks like I need to be really careful about what I say.
  
• One night in the bath we were talking about how Hailee got her dad's hair and her mom's nose etc... After her bath she went streaking in to Todd so excited and exclaimed "Dad I got your skinny legs." She then gave Todd a big kiss and then teased him about kissing a naked girl. "Ooooh dad, you kissed a naked girl." Then she proceeded to dance around the room until I could get her dressed. I think she also got her dad's love of teasing.
  
• One day when Todd got home I was giving him a hug and Hailee ran over and said "Hey wait for me, I'm part of the family too." She definitely thinks her place is right in the middle.
  
• Another day when I was running around cleaning and working on things Hailee came over and asked for a hug. I was busy so I just put one arm around her quickly and kept going. She then said "No mom, I need two arms."
• Friday I noticed that Hailee had a canker sore. She was horrified to find a "cranker" sore. She asks me every morning how it's looking. Last night when I asked her if she wanted a cookie. She said "Yes, on no wait, I have a cranker sore, I can't." I have no idea where she got that idea from, I guess she thinks a cookie will hurt her cranker sore.
  
• And my favorite comment from Hailee this week was when I was complaining about getting old Hailee responded. "But mom you have to be old because your husband is old." I guess she is right.

Hailee playing with her play-doh. She loves making all kind of things. She was most excited when mom was gone to Enrichment and she got to stay home and play with her play-doh with her dad. Dad is much more fun when it comes to play-doh games.

Orange Fun

When getting out of the shower today I discovered that Hailee had found a stamp pad and had proceeded to paint her face orange. I asked her what she was doing and she said she was being the sun. Oh good. Well we had about an hour before my friend was coming to get me to go to lunch so I quickly put her in the bath to try and scrub it off. At first she kept telling me she didn't want to take it off, and I just don't know if I could have taken her out with a bright orange face and hands. But then she remembered that I promised her she could wear her swimming suit in the bath. Yesterday we were suppose to go to an indoor pool with some friends, but then her friends got sick, so to make it up to her I told her she could take a bath in her swimming suit. I'm not sure why that would make up for it, but somehow taking a bath in a swimming suit is so much more fun than taking a bath naked.

Any way I get her in the bath and scrub her little face until she was sick of it. It looked a lot better, but there was still quite a bit of orange on her face. After a few baby wipes later it was looking a lot better, but she still had orange on her face. But until I can get her back in the bath to scrub some more she is just going to look like she tired putting on her own makeup. Children sure make life fun. Who would have thought you could use a stamp pad for face paint. It was quite effective, too bad it was hard to get off.

Todd and Hailee in the Snow

Saturday was the perfect weather for going outside in the snow. The sun was shinning and it wasn't very cold. Each Saturday Todd tries to do something fun with Hailee since he is so busy the rest of the week. He always gives her a few choices, but Saturday she only wanted to play in the snow. One "Daddy" snowman and one huge family snow ball fight later we were all inside drinking hot chocolate. It was so much fun. Hailee has discovered her other favorite thing in the snow....snowball fights.

Easy as... one

two

three

Todd and Hailee building the snowman. The snow was so dry it was hard to get it together. But they kept trying and it worked out in the end. It always so cute for me to see them together. They have such a good time.

No More Waterproof Clothes

I've decided next time we go play in the snow I'm not going to dress Hailee in waterproof clothes. Although I don't know if it would make a big difference since she loves the snow so much. It would just make me a bad mom because she would have frost bite before she would come inside. My snow clothes are still in storage and Todd has the keys with him. I always forget to get them out until it's time to go play in the snow.

Being freezing cold (at least I was) aside we did have a good time in the snow. We built a mom snowman and a baby snowman. It started snowing when we were finishing up the baby snowman and Hailee wanted to stay out to make the dad snowman. I told her that maybe tomorrow dad could go and make a dad snowman with her. We did stay out for another 20 minutes though and she had a great time digging and playing in the snow. (Thanks Megan for the idea of taking sand toys in the snow, it worked great!) When I told her it was time to go in because I was cold, she responded, "I'm not cold mom, let's stay out and play some more." After about an hour in the snow I finally convinced her that is really was okay to go inside, but I had to let her bring in a shovel full of snow. We put it in a bowl when we got inside and she sat down at ate half of it. The rest had to be put in tupperware and put in the freezer and saved for tomorrow.

Trying to catch snow in her mouth.

Eating her snow inside.

Armored Tank

Before we left on Christmas break a lady on BYU campus decided to back up on the road and didn't check behind her. So even though I honked at her, she backed right into me. Fun way to start off the break. Since we were going to be traveling and the car was still drivable we waited to get it fixed until we got back. We were suppose to take it in Monday, but Enterprise didn't have a rental car ready. Yesterday I called again and they still didn't have one. They called about 11:00 and said they got in a bigger car that they would let me use until they got a compact car in. I was so surprised when they brought a Ford Expedition. Good grief, I feel like I'm driving around an armored tank. They joked and said it was the largest compact car they carried. Yeah, no kidding. I like SUV's, but I don't think I want one quite that big.

They other funny thing that happened yesterday was I realized that Todd had a doctors appointment in Salt Lake about 20 minutes before we were suppose to leave. It was just a follow-up with his specialist. Todd and I both forgot to put it in our calendars and with the break I just got the mail delivered so the reminder not was a little late. Luckily I was able to get a hold of Todd and we got there just 10 minutes late. The doctors appointment went well, he gave Todd some new medicine to try and we think we figured out the reason Todd's had such an upset stomach on his medicine. It might not be his hydergine medicine at all (it needs to be taken with food or it causes stomach problems.) We've been really good about taking it with food, but his stomach has still been upset. The other medicine he is on is a diuretic and the doctor things it may be causing a potassium deficiency, and that could be causing the stomach problems.

Hailee and Todd on the way to drop Todd off at school. The picture doesn't really do the snow justice. The weather said we got 10 inches of snow. The funny part of this picture to me is Hailee choosing to walk in the deepest part of the snow. I think she is part Eskimo because she LOVES the snow.

After dropping Todd off at school we went and visited my aunt Brenda and my grandparents. Hailee had the best time playing with everyone. She was really excited when Sadie came out to play. Here are some pictures of her "playing" with Sadie. I don't know if Sadie considers it playing, but Hailee loved it.

My little "sunbeam"

Today was Hailee's first day in Sunbeams. The last two years Hailee has enjoyed going to nursery so much that I was a little afraid of how she would like sunbeams. I remember the first time I took her to nursery, she wasn't talking a lot, but she gave me a look that said "You have been taking me to Sunday School and Relief Society when there has been toys and snacks in here....are you crazy, how come you haven't brought me here before." From then on my little girl has loved church. Even in a new place she just runs right in to nursery without looking back. We've been talking about going to the big kid Primary for a few week in preparation, but she always told me that she wanted to stay in Nursery.

Yesterday while at the BYU bookstore picking up Todd's books I saw a little kid scripture case for the little set of scriptures. Being a student I wasn't going to pay $17 for a little case, so I had the plan to make my own. I had to go by the Church Distribution center for my lesson, so I picked up a small Book of Mormon and had her name printed on it. I made the bag that night and gave it to her. It turned out okay considering I didn't have a pattern for it and just kind of made it up as I went. She was so excited to have her name on her Book of Mormon and her own little bag to put it in.

In the morning we got up and were getting ready for church and I asked her if she was ready to go to Primary. She said:

H: Why do I have to go to Primary, am I too sick to go to nursery. (She wasn't sick, but in Oregon I would have her come with me to Primary if she was sick.)
N: No Hailee, you are just getting bigger so you get to go to Primary.
H: But mom I can't reach the sky, I am still a little small.

Luckily once we got to Primary she was just so excited about something new and was happy as can be to sit by her teacher. Every once in a while she would turn around and wave at me, but she did really good. She loves the fact that the Primary theme is "I am a Child of God." She commented about everything that was going on today. We need to have a "family home evening" about needing to wait our turn in Primary. They also sang songs that she knew, so that was really fun for her. When we picked her up after she was still excited and smiling, so it looks like she made the transition to Primary.


In other news today I tried a new recipe. I'm always a little nervous about trying a new recipe on Sunday because I hate having a bad dinner on Sunday. But I got an Alfredo Sauce recipe from my sister so I decided to give it a try. I turned out so well I had to take a picture. (Yes I know I am taking after my Grandma Wagner :) ). I actually just loved the way Hailee's plate looked. She had to have her white sauce on the side. I love making cute little plates for her. She like it and ate most of it, so she got a green yo-yo (or mint oreo in english) for dessert.

We're Back

Why is it always seem vacation time goes by faster than regular time. Well we are back and I decided I really need to update my blog. We had some a wonderful Christmas break. We left Friday the 21st to go down to St. George. Todd finished his last final and we were off to St. George. Here are some of the highlights of our trip....

• Singing karaoke. When we arrived in St. George we had our traditional sleeping under the Christmas tree a little early since we were going to be gone on the 23rd. Deneille had borrowed a karaoke machine and Hailee loved it. Every song Hailee proclaimed that she knew it. She had such a good time singing with everyone and staying up late.
  

• The BYU vs. UCLA. For those of you who don't really know my husband, he is a HUGE BYU football fan. I think BYU football is going to be the major thing he misses when we move to Oregon. Thanks to some friends from the MBA program we got tickets and had such a good time. We went with Todd's family and Hailee got to party with Grammy and Papa in St. George. It was such a good game, and were were in the endzone (10 rows up) where UCLA missed the chance to win the game. It took Todd and I both a few days to get our voices back. It was such a fun game.
  

• The Polar Express. On Christmas Eve, Grandma Layer had tickets and everything for us. Hailee loved watching the moving and when it was done she was wondering when we got to ride a real train to go see Santa.

• Making Cookies for Santa. Kristy and Hailee made cookies for Santa. Right in the middle of making them Santa showed up.

• Santa gave Hailee a toy dog and told her that he would bring her a real one when she moved to Oregon. After Santa left Hailee said "That was a big surprise." She was also so excited in the morning when she woke up and Santa had come and eaten her cookies that she made.

• Christmas morning Hailee had such a good time "helping" everyone. Being the only child there she was a little spoiled, but her very favorite thing was a "recorder." She was excited to play music and because Lola has a blue recorder and she has a purple one. If only Santa would have known a 88 cent recorder from wal-mat would have made her happy.
  

Uncle DJ gave Hailee the movie Ratatouille and she was so excited. We've already watched it a million times. She calls is "Chef Spaghetti"

Hailee playing with her recorder.

• This vacation Hailee got to see all of her grandparents and almost all of her great-grandparents. She definitely loved all the attention.
  

• She always loves going to Grammy's house to play in the kitchen. She made a variety of dishes for all of us.
  

• After Christmas we went back to St. George and spent some more time there. My grandparents that recently returned from a mission in Mexico were there and we had a great time playing games and visiting for a few days. New Years Eve Hailee got to stay up with the big girls since she had taken a three hour nap that day. She got to play with the karaoke machine again. She now knows more words to "We Belong" and "Beat it" then I do. She also enjoyed tormenting, I mean spending time with Freckles. Hailee was sad to tell him good-bye, but I don't know if the feeling was mutual. I am still amazed at the switch in her.