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)

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 

Easter 2014

Here are a few pictures of the Easter holiday:

Hadley and Auntie M dyeing Easter eggs. She is the lover of all things holiday.

Hadley's meeting of the Easter Bunny didn't go as smoothly as her meeting Santa Claus. She wasn't happy. She barely would go up there to see him. She hardly smiled. This was the best we got and then she said "Mommy! I'm done!!"

Hadley and Aunt Cindy playing on the four-wheelers at Bass Pro after meeting the Easter Bunny.

This is the only half way decent picture I got of Hadley's Easter dress.

Hadley and Daddy doing the Easter Egg Hunt at church.

She was so proud of all the eggs they found!

Family picture after church.

Maybe we will have better luck with the Bunny next year...

Let's take it back... Wrap up 2013

HELLO BLOG WORLD! 

I started this blog when I was pregnant with Hadley. I wanted to document every month I was pregnant with her. I want to remember all the little moments we have with her. 

There are so many other social media outlets that I seem to forget about my little blog. 

It's kind of sad when I think about it too. I'm a writer by nature. I enjoy doing it. I feel like I'm fairly decent at it. Yet, it's the one thing I completely neglect. 

I should make a resolution to keep up with this better. 

Oh wait!! I had a good post about 2014 resolutions ... that I forgot to write :)

Anyway, I figured since I haven't updated since September then I needed to just do a big "wrap up" post for the rest of 2013.So here we go. Be prepared for lots of pictures and probably not many words.

Hadley at Charmichael's Pumpkin Patch.

Hadley trying to pick out a pumpkin. She wasn't really "in to it" this year.

The stencil she chose for her pumpkin. She liked it because it was like "Monster's INC."

Hadley digging out and carving her pumpkin with Daddy.

Hadley's Wednesday night class at church painting pumpkins. This was the first time she had done this. She loved it.

Hadley had two costumes this year. During the day she was Minnie Mouse.  Cutest Minnie I've ever seen :)

Trunk-OR-Treat at church; We made a castle to go along with Hadley's second costume.

Costume #2: Cinderella

I forgot to have her two year old pictures taken. So me and her cousin Shelby took her to the park around two and a half years to try and get some pictures. I think we did pretty decent considering we have no idea what we are doing.

Around Thanksgiving, we all had family pictures done at Lee's parent's house. This is my favorite :)

Family picture in front of the Christmas tree after decorating the house all day.

Hadley seeing Santa Clause. This went much better than I anticipated. She loved him.

Hadley at Nammy's house (with her cousins) making gingerbread houses. She was so proud of her little "castle."

Christmas morning with her gifts from Santa and Mommy and Daddy.

The cousins at Nammy's house for Christmas round 2. 

That wraps up 2013!
It's crazy to look back at the pictures from what seems like not that long ago and already see such a change in Hadley and how she has grown.
The one thing I love most about Hadley is how eager she is to do everything.
She is excited for every holiday.
She is ready for most all new experiences.
She wants to try everything "all by myself!!"
We aren't rich. We can't give her everything she wants and probably everything we want to give her.
But she doesn't care (nor does she know).
She is so happy to do and have everything she does.
She loves her little life.
And I love her.

Christmas 2012

PREFACE: GET READY FOR PICTURE OVERLOAD!

I'm a little behind on posting pictures of Christmas this year, but this is more than I can say for Thanksgiving. Naturally, I forgot to take a single picture during Thanksgiving :-/ I'm also behind on this post because all three of us have been sick. Like deathly, down for the count, SICK! There is a nasty little stomach flu going around here and it has been horrible. Today is the first day, in four days, I've started feeling better.

So here we are:

Hadley's BIG Santa present: Kitchen and PLAY ROOM!

Hadley's first reaction seeing her new play room. I think she loved it! Look at that little tongue!

Hadley checking out her kitchen. She is obsessed with cooking in it.

Nanny Wanda and Papa Ronnie bought Hadley this toy shelf for Christmas. We filled it with the toys she had already. Obviously, they seemed brand new! :)

Santa also left one more present under the Christmas tree: laptop! She walked in the room and saw it and immediately dropped to her belly to check it out.

One of the gifts Mommy and Daddy got her. Baby girl loves to sing. Naturally, she got a microphone.

After Christmas at our house, we head over to Lee's parent's and grandparent's houses. 

First stop: Nammy and Papa Brian's!

Nammy and Papa got Hadley a stroller for her baby dolls. She went right to it before she even knew it was really for her.

Nammy and Papa with their little bitys. Kind of blurry, but it was a "seize the moment" kind of picture.

Lee with his "dad hat" as he calls it. He has been wanting a hat like this for the summer in the garden.

Hadley Ruth thought she needed to try it on too!

Cousin love. My joy!

Then we went next door for Christmas at Nanny Carol and Papaw Wayne's: 

Leslie giving Nanny Carol her quilt that she (Leslie) made. The quilt is made from Carol's father's old pearl snap shirts and quilt left behind from Carol's sister, Sue. Tears all around! So sweet!

Hadley's fancy fur coat from Nanny and Papaw. Hadley girl loves coats.

Well that was our Christmas, in a nutshell. We really enjoyed Christmas this year. Hadley is at such a fun age to enjoy unwrapping gifts and seeing her excitement over her new things. She is still very much enjoying her play room and especially her kitchen. There is a great feature of her kitchen: the stove lights up and makes "sizzling and cooking" noises. When she turns it on she always warns me, "HOT! HOT!" Sweet girl! She is spending most of her time either cooking us food in her kitchen or sitting at her new table and chairs (also from Nanny Carol and Papaw Wayne) playing on her laptop. She is still as busy as ever.

Fatcation 2012.

Most people dream of going on big elaborate vacations. Maybe some place like Paris. Or Spain. Me? My only request was to go to Branson, MO during the holidays. I wanted to see the lights and the pretties. This year, I was pleasantly surprised when Lee suggested we go this year! Along with me, Lee, and Hadley came my grandparents, my aunt, uncle, and cousin, Lee's parents, and his brother.

We left on a Friday morning and headed that way. We stopped in Springfield, MO at Bass Pro. We were hoping to see the aquarium that has been under construction for years. Well, of course, it was still under construction. That was disappointing, but since it was Christmas time there was tons of Hadley to do. She rode the carousal 3 times. She wasn't too sure about it at first, but after the first go 'round - she loved it. 
  

When we left Bass Pro we went to lunch at Lambert's Cafe. This is where we met up with my family. Usually the wait to get into Lambert's is about 1 or even 2 hours. We were fully expecting a long wait. Somehow we got in in less than 10 minutes. Lucky! We all ate lots of rolls and lots of food. Hadley was so funny. Every time the man throwing the rolls would come out, she would throw her hands in the air. But he never saw her. We finally caught his attention and he came over and "tossed" her her own roll. She was so excited. Sweet baby!

 

My mother-in-law, Tracey, and her ridiculously large salad. I couldn't stop starring at it!

 

 Hadley "catching" her roll. 

Lambert's is only about 30 minutes outside of Branson, so we got there shortly after lunch. We checked into our hotel and got settled in our rooms. Then we decided to hit up the Tanger Outlit Mall. We weren't too impressed overall. I've been there before and have found much better deals. I'm not really sure if I wasn't looking in the right spots or if it was just bad timing. Oh, and for once, I didn't buy anything at the COACH outlit. I didn't see anything I just couldn't live without. 

That night we had reservations for the Dixie Stampede. I love love love the "regular" Dixie Stampede. I was very impressed with the Christmas show. It was the best live Nativity I've ever seen. The only bad thing about it was, we were stuffed. We were stuffed from lunch. It was a terrible decision to eat Lambert's and the Dixie Stampede in 1 day! Hence why the renamed this vacation to "fat"cation.

Saturday we spent the morning shopping at The Landing. Saturday afternoon we went to Silver Dollar City. I normally love SDC. I've dreamed of going during the holidays. BUT it will never happen again. It was so busy. So crazy. So packed! That it wasn't even really enjoyable. Plus, it was pretty cold. It took 1 hour just to get to the parking spot then another 30 minutes waiting to get into the park. Madness, I tell you! We stayed long enough to see all the lights "officially" light up for the night, but left shortly after. We didn't even stay for the parade. Oh well, Hadley loved it for the few hours we were there. Hopefully, we can take her back another time so she can enjoy the rides without it being so busy. 

 

Hadley and Daddy at SDC after going through the fun house. 

 

Hadley and Mommy in SDC.

 

Daddy and Hadley looking at the lights.