Sleeping Beauty and a Cute Little Bunny

Hailee and her teacher Moryah. She was such a great teacher and Hailee loved her. She was a beautiful dancer and sleeping beauty.

Hailee had her ballet recital on Saturday. I have to say I was very impressed with the whole thing. Instead of having the classes do individual routines it was all part of the ballet "Sleeping Beauty" complete with the Tchaikovsky music. It was beautiful. The reoccurring parts were the older girls and Hailee's teacher was Sleeping Beauty. Since Hailee's part was in the third act so she got to sit with us for the first two acts. Her face was priceless. She sat and loved watching the show. She was so excited when she first saw sleeping beauty and clapped as loud as anyone. We can hardly wait to get the DVD so we can watch it again. After the second act I took Hailee back to the waiting room and she watched Snow White while she waited. I went back to my seat to watch. She did such a good job and kept a smile on her face the whole time. Her favorite part was the end when she got to bow in the grand finale. Deneille and Kristy went with us and Hailee loved having them there.


Todd got her some flowers for her and she was in heaven. When we got home she made sure that they got put in a vase and put in her room. She asked me "Why did my daddy give me flowers." I said "Why do you think?" To which she thought for a minute and said "I guess it's because he loves me." I assured her it was true. She loves waking up to her flowers and knowing how much her daddy loves her. We are sad ballet is done for the summer and hope we can find a studio as good as this one in Oregon.

I just love this one of her and Todd and her cute little bunny ears. Her favorite part of her costume were her bunny ears and bunny tail. You can't quite see it in any of the pictures, I'll have to take some more. I don't think it will be too hard to convince her to put it on again.


This is Hailee and I before things got started. I wish I could have taken her picture during the performance, she loved watching the ballet.

This last picture is Sunday afternoon. You know your 4-year-old, who refuses to take naps for you, is tired when I find her in bed asleep. I took a little nap and woke up to Hailee being very quiet. Todd just thought she was playing quietly by herself, I was a little intrigued because even when she plays by herself I can hear her talking or singing. I went in her room to find her asleep in bed with stuffed monkey, blanket and everything. I guess she had a busy and exhausting weekend.

Summer Time

Well it is official, Summer is finally here. A week and a half ago it reached 90 degrees and there hasn't been any looking back. Now we are just counting down the days until our pool opens so we can go swimming more often. Here are somethings that have been happening at our house while we are trying to wait for our pool to open.

• Hailee has been addicted to reading. We've had to limit bedtime stories and then in the morning she can't wait to get up and read some more. She informed me that since she was four now she needed to have four books. (Before it was always three stories at bed, she would stay up all night if I read to her.) We agreed to four books, she reads two books and I read two books. It's so cute to see her love of reading.
• We had a ward swimming party with the kids last week and I really needed a new suit. The one I've been wearing I got before I was married (I really hate swim suit shopping). A few weeks ago I found one online that I just loved. I ordered it and after a few days was informed they were out of stock and didn't know when they would be getting more in. Agh! I had to start all over. After an annoying trip to the mall, I finally found one I liked. It's from Shades and I was excited to find out there was a store in the University Mall.
  
• They other funny story from Hailee this week was when we were reading stories at night. When we were done she kept asking for more. (Now I've learned that it doesn't matter how many stories I read, she always want one more.) It was late (thanks to how bright it is at night and me loosing track of time) so I needed her to go to bed. After I told her no about 10 times she said... " That's not a nice word....I said please, that is a nice word. Mom please is a magical word." Oh where does she come from. I read her one more story and then she went to bed happy.
  

H A P P Y F A T H E R ' S D A Y

Happy Father's Day! We had a very busy and very fun Father's Day. It started early with church. Hailee got to sing with the Primary in Sacrament Meeting. She was so excited. They sang "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home..." She remembered all the words and actions to go with it. It was fun seeing my little girl singing on the stage, she is just getting too big. In Primary they had the kids draw a picture for their dad's during sharing time. That is part where Hailee and I are together. The title of the picture was "I love my Dad more than..." As soon as it was read, Hailee shouted out "my mom." That got all the adults laughing in the room.

After church we had Kristy, Ruthann, and DJ over for a Father's Day/DJ's birthday party dinner. It was fun and we had cheese cake for dessert. Todd also got to watch 2 soccer games. The amazing comeback win of Turkey vs. Czech Republic of Euro 2008 (I'm still in shock that Turkey scored three goals in the last 20 minutes to win the game). Afterwards the US National team in World Cup qualifying against Barbados, it was a little sad, we won, but it was 8 - 0. I felt a little bad for the Barbados team.

Hailee was so excited to pick out a Father's day present for Todd. I gave her a few ideas and she decided on new shorts for summer. (A total girl at heart, forget camping stuff, she wanted to go clothes shopping.) But Todd's best present of the day was getting to install new sink fixtures in the bathroom. I'm not kidding, that is what he wanted to do with his evening. Todd loves getting his tools out and working on things. So even though it was Sunday I decided it was a small enough project to let him go ahead and do it. Hailee of course was there to "help." I think the job went twice as fast once Hailee went to bed. She just loves "helping" so much."

I think with Todd and Hailee it was love at first sight. They are so cute together and have such a good time enjoying things together. They love sports, reading, the beach, and just playing together. I looked through the last four years of pictures and there were just too many of the two of them together. They have the cutest little relationship and Hailee has Todd wrapped around her little finger (and she knows it).

Pictures of "helping"

What a good little helper. My favorite quote of the evening. "Dad how come I don't have any tools?" Hailee things tools are the best toys. It's always fun to see what has found it's way into Todd's tool box, or what has found it's way into Hailee's toy box.

Cousin Fun

Hailee has decided that her cousins live too far away. They do have so much fun together when we do get together. Tuesday we went to the Canyon and took some pictures of the four little cousins. They turned out quite cute. Here are some of my favorites.

Party Time

I can't believe my baby is four, where did the time go. We have had a very busy and very social weekend for our newly turned four year old. Saturday was her official birthday and since they sang to her for her birthday in Primary the Sunday before she has been looking forward to it. Saturday morning she woke up and said "Mom is it my birthday?" I told her that it was to which she said "I'm four, I will never be three again." Then she jumped up and got ready for her big day of being four. We were quite busy. She had a ballet dress rehearsal then after we had a party with Todd's siblings. It was so fun. On the 21st she has her ballet performance of "The Sleeping Beauty." Hailee's little class is going to be bunnies and her teacher is going to be Sleeping Beauty. From what I saw it's going to be quite cute.

Hailee with Sleeping Beauty (aka her teacher Mariah)

Hailee and one of her little friends from ballet...Aren't they just the cutest little bunnies.

Her birthday party with Aunt Kristy, Aunt Ruthann, and Uncle DJ was a lot of fun as well. Hailee requested everything to be red (It's her new favorite color). She wanted plain cake and red frosting. Since red frosting is so hard, we did whipped cream, red sprinkles and strawberries. She was thrilled. She loves having her aunts and uncle so close, and next week we get to celebrate DJ's birthday together. So many fun summer birthdays.




Sunday Grandpa & Grandma Mortensen, Aunt Stacie, Uncle Ernie, and her cousins Cambria, Ethan, and Derek all came to stay. It was one big party until they left today. Hailee loves playing with her cousins, we are just sad that it only happens once or twice a year. Of course she got spoiled again, and then...

Grandpa, Cambria (on Grandpa's shoulders) Hailee, Grandma, Ernie, and Derek (he was sad because he couldn't keep the candy bar on Hailee's present). Hailee got a little Camelback just her size from her grandparents.

Monday morning Hailee woke up (after staying up pretty late and sleeping in) to the house decorated for her Princess Party. We had seven little princess at our house for an hour and a half. I don't think Hailee could have been more pleased. We played: Princess, Princess, Queen (duck, duck, goose), Princess and the Pea, Princess Pinata, made little bags and had a great time.

Princess Hailee and her dad.

Hailee by her cake. I couldn't get her to smile any less.

Princess, Princess, Queen

All of our birthday princesses: Cambria, Lesiel, Kaymi, Hailee, Reagan, Paige, and Lexi.

It was our first time with a pull-the-string type Pinata. It worked pretty good. We had everyone pick one and pull at the same time. It was fun.

Gathering up the candy.

Cambria playing Princess and the Pea. We had three stacks of pillows and I hid a "pea" underneath one of the stacks. Each princess had to see if they could find which stack had the pea.

Blowing out the candles. I couldn't figure out how to put the candles in the doll cake so I just put them in cupcakes again.

What a busy and fun days for my little girl. She loved having her friends over and she loved playing with her cousins. Cambria and Hailee are a year apart, but from the way they play together you wouldn't know it. They have so much fun. We are so glad they could plan their vacation to make it to Hailee's birthday.

Self-Portrait

Hailee has always loved coloring and her pictures of people recently have cracked me up. I've decided to post a few of my favorites. The top one is a self-portrait. You might wonder about the pink hair, when I asked her why she painted her hair pink she responded that her favorite colors are pink and red. Okay, pink hair definitely looks fun. Her recent pictures all feature big googly eyes and funny smiles. It's quite fun.
This is a picture of her and Roslynn. I just love Roslynn's floppy ears in this picture. She also put a heart on the top to which she informed me means love and she loves Roslynn. A few days ago I had to put the shock collar on Roslynn because she kept trying to sneak food from the kitchen while I was cooking. She was sitting on her pillow when Hailee came and asked why she had the shock collar on to which I replied that she was being naughty. Hailee said "Oh I know about being naughty." As long as they don't get naughty together we should be fine. Hailee has been really good about watching Roslynn to make sure she doesn't get into food or things she's not suppose to. Now we just need to train Roslynn to make sure Hailee's not getting into things she's not suppose to.