4 years: little love letters

My favorite little baby girl,

YOU'RE 4!! You told Grandma, "It takes a long time to be 4!" You've been waiting ALL year for this! 

You're the smartest 4 year old I know. 

You've got the biggest heart for you little brother. You want to be the best big sister every. And you already are!

You have the sweetest spirit. You are so worried about doing what is right that even hours after you've done wrong you'll apologize. 

You love going to school. You love to learn knew things. Learning to write. You love books. 

Going to church is the highlight of your week. You love to talk about Jesus and Heaven. In fact, that's all you talk about every single time we are in the car together. 

You're going to do great things baby girl! You already have! 

Everyone gets a "birthday" in preschool. Even when it isn't their real birthday. Everyone is celebrated. You were last as you were the closest birthday to summer. Here is you on your "school birthday." 

Here you are on your actual birthday. We planned to celebrate at the Splash Pad, but it was a rainy day so we celebrated at the church instead. We did painting crafts, Popsicle, and bubbles outside. You didn't even miss the Splash Pad. You wanted a Frozen party. Of course...

One our your favorite presents was this little pool from Nanny Wanda and Papa Ronnie. 

Here are a few pictures from your year of becoming 4!

First day of preschool

First time at the Warren Theater seeing the new Cinderella movie. 

First pedicure with Mommy. 

First Girls Night Out with Mommy. We went for Sushi with friends. You had fried rice. 

Big snowfall of 2014.

Helping Papa Wayne rake the leaves. 

First time bowling. It was your last day of Preschool. Nanny Carol came with us, too. 

Going to a check up with brother. 

"Star princess" face paint from the Green Corn Festival. You look forward to the Green Corn Festival every summer. 

Swimming at Aunt Cindy's house. 

Preschool homework was "a lot of work." 

Once you got the hang of writing some letters, you wanted to write on everything. 

You wanted to learn to write Mommy and Daddy's names. You did so well!! 

4th of July. First time doing a sparkler. 

Easter 2015

We had lots of activities this Easter. Hadley was able to do three egg hunts. Hadley had an Easter program at school. We made Resurrection Rolls. Attended "A Walk With Jesus" event at church. Easter morning at church. Lunch with family. And at some point I know Hadley also dyed eggs. 

Hadley's Easter program at school. She was so proud of her little dress. She had two Easter dresses this year because I bought her a dress she had picked out. Then her Aunt Vickie bought her this dress. We decided she would wear the dress Aunt Vickie got her to her school program. Then she could wear the dress she picked out for church, Easter morning. 

Resurrection Rolls!
These were so fun for Hadley. If you have never done Resurrection Rolls you need to google the recipe and make them next year. The concept is that you use a marshmallow. You prepare it with oil and spices like they prepared Jesus' body. Then you put it in the roll like the  cloths they covered him with. Then you put him in the tomb (oven) and when you pull them out the marshmallow is gone just like Jesus is Risen! I know this will now be a yearly tradition for us.

Hadley & Hayden Easter morning. 

All of us Easter morning in front of the tomb. We had a live program the night before called "A walk with Jesus" that goes through the story of the Jesus' death and resurrection. 

Christmas 2014

This was our first Christmas with two little kiddos. Hayden was only 3 months old around Christmas time. Surprisingly, he was very interested in all the lights, decorations, and presents. 

The kids took a visit to see Santa.

Hadley dressed up as Santa Claus yelling, "OH, HO, HO."

These were some homemade Christmas gifts we made for my grandparents and Lee's parents. Salt dough ornaments. Seemed easy enough. Boy, I was wrong. They were much more difficult than i anticipated. Luckily, they turned out cute. 

We had pictures made of the kids to give along with the ornaments. My friend, Cacey, is a very talented young lady. She is currently in school to become a photographer. Go check out her Facebook page if you get a chance. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Cacey-Lee-Photography/287150808211

ST. NICK made a stop at our house!!! (12/25/14)

Family Picture at church. The kids were both in the Christmas program this year. Hadley sang with her class. Hayden was "Baby Jesus" in the program. He also came in in this red stocking at the very beginning of the program. We put him back in the stocking for pictures because all he had on was his "swaddling" clothes. 

Christmas Babies. 

5 Generations Picture at Gibson Family Christmas. (12/20/124)

Halloween 2014

I've been trying to post this for months. Every time I did it would say "failed." So let me try again...

For Halloween: Hadley was "Elsa" from Frozen (of course). And Hayden was a little baby skeleton. When we went to buy Hadley's Elsa costume they were all sold out. Hadley said she saw a dress in the clothes section that was a costume. She said since it had a tutu that it was a costume. So I went with it to avoid tears of not getting to be Elsa. Buy an Elsa dress with a tutu. Add a princess crown and BOOM. You have Elsa.

... And more importantly, it was a LOT cheaper! 

We just found this little pajama set for brother to wear. When I picked it out Hadley saw it and said, "That's too scary. I'm walking away now." 

The weekend before Halloween, Cindy (Lee's Aunt) and I took the kids over to Leslie and Nic's church's carnival. Hadley LOVES blow up toys and games. 

We also discovered she is VERY competitive. The picture below is of her racing another little girl. It's was a blow up obstacle course. The last part of the race is to race to the top and slide down to win. The picture on the left is her coming over the top. The picture on the right is her getting over the top and seeing the other girl at the bottom and realizing she had lost. She yelled "OH MAN!!!!" 

After this she made Aunt Leslie race her. She said, "you're NOT going to beat me!" 

Pumpkin Patch

Hadley went to a pumpkin patch with her preschool. It wasn't really a "pumpkin patch" so much as a local produce store with pumpkins :) 

Their field trip was to go and look at the produce and talk about colors. Then at the end they looked at the pumpkins to discuss "big and little / small and large." 

Hadley with her class

Looking at produce

Everyone finding a large pumpkin to sit on

"CHEESE!!!"

This was the first field trip I got to go on with Hadley since having the baby. She and brother needed a picture. 

All 3 of us