tHe biG ONE

I can't believe Hadley is already oNe! Time flies! I can remember the day she was born like it was yesterday. We are so blessed to have such a sweet little girl and LOVE her to death! For her birthday we had a little party and had some friends over. She's a pretty popular gal and we are so grateful for everyone who was able to come and celebrate with us! My mom and Dan drove down just for her birthday and we're glad they were able to come too! She got lots of fun new toys and cute clothes. I'm running out of places to put stuff in our apartment! I made my first cake. Well, I've made cakes before, not often though, so I guess this was my first time actually decorating a cake. All that hard work for her to just completely destroy it (pictures will follow) and not even try it. I know the pictures look like she has it on her mouth, but that was my doing. She seriously wouldn't even put it in her mouth. Typical. But it was fun to watch her play with it. A little update...actually there's not much of an update from last month. I started to make my bullet points and the only one that's really new is that she's walking! She does so good! She still crawls more often then walks, but she's always trying to stand up and walk around. So walking plus everything else in the past:)

 

Her new kicks. I just really love 'em and wanted to share

Happy Birthday Hadley! We LoVe you!

eLeVEn mOntHs

I don't know how I decide which months I'm going to post about, it seems pretty random. It's more like I plan to do it every month because that would make the most sense, but then I forget and don't ever do it. So here we are...11 months old. I can't believe she'll be ONE next month! Crazy! She's seriously so much fun! She got sick this past month and that was not so much fun. I had moments where I'd think that we're not having any more kids, but she's been better and back on schedule for the past little while so maybe we'll have a few more. And a little update of the babe...

She has 3 teeth now. Her bottom two and a top one, but the other top ones are right there ready to poke through any time now. The joys of teething.

She pulls herself up on everything. Including me at the most inopportune moments.

Still loves to dance

She's really good at our phones. She slides it right open and moves all of our apps around, calls people, takes pictures, etc.

She loves to be around other people

Waves like she's in a pageant. She has lovely wrist action

She can stand by herself briefly before falling over

Spitting is a new favorite past time, for her, not me

She jibber jabbers a lot. When she starts talking, I think she'll have a lot to say.

She can point to our noses

She crawls. Fast. I included a video, but I don't think it depicts how fast she really is. She loves when BJ chases her around the house.

Gives high fives

Sleeps like a champ, for the most part

She's loud. But only at church and in the store. She just kinda likes to yell and hear her voice

Loves to play at the park and go for walks

She's a pro at climbing stairs, especially for us not having any. 

hiding from BJ

Just hanging out, playing on the phone

I know this is a random picture of the back of her head, but I think she looks cute. Doesn't she kinda look like Boo from Monsters, Inc.?

Well the video I previously mentioned won't upload for some reason, so it will not be shown for now:(

She's an official...

CRAWLER!! This girl has been wanting to crawl for the last little bit, but just hasn't been able to do it and the other day I was working on something on my computer and all of a sudden she's beside me with a big, drooly grin on her face. She doesn't do it a whole lot, she'd prefer for us to help her walk or is still pretty content just rolling around. So here's a little video...(I've had all these videos on my phone and didn't know how to get them to the computer to share them and I finally figured it out, it's quite simple and I feel dumb. Actually I didn't even figure it out myself, BJ had to tell me. I don't know why he didn't just tell me months ago).

We went to the park today. Actually we've gone to the park pretty much everyday this week, the weather is beautiful! We went to a park with swings and Hadley loved it!

NinE MoNtHS

Today, Hadley is now officially 9 months old! A quick update on what she's been up to (she's been doing a few of these things for a while, but I'm bad about updating)...

• She's still clapping like crazy, it's one of the coolest tricks she knows. Now she will clap on cue to "If You're Happy and You Know It"
• Still dancing to any and every beat she hears, even the sacrament hymns
• She's shaking her head "yes" and "no", more often "no"
• Started feeding herself her finger foods
• Her two bottom teeth came in at the same time, finally. I swear I've thought she was teething for the past 5 months.
• She loves playing with balls and rolling them back and forth
• Says "mama" and "dada", to anybody, but still, it's fun
• I'm working with her on a little bit of sign language. She looks at me like I'm crazy, but hopefully she'll pick some of it up
• Likes to share her food and toys with BJ and I
• Reaches and grabs for everything. She has a super strong grip.
• Plays really well by herself with her toys, but does like to have me in sight. If she notices I'm gone, it's like she forgets how to play and just starts crying.
• Puts herself to sleep for naps and bedtime
• Loves to pull her blanket/bear over her face to play "peek-a-boo"
• She had her first official haircut and it looks so cute, but often people ask "how old is he?" I don't know if it's the haircut or what cause she has pink, purple, or some girly outfit on. I should use headbands and elastics more, but she just pulls them out and then they just sit in the diaper bag.
• She's started throwing little temper tantrums
• Not crawling yet, but she gets on all 4's and rocks back and forth
• She is a little flirt. She see's guys and just peeks at them, gets this shy look on her face, and just keeps trying to get them to play with her.
• She just started waving. It's more of like a whole arm motion, but she does it to everyone

Her favorite toy right now. If she's not playing with it, she's  staring at it until we take her over to it.
We spend a lot of time at this thing everyday.

She's so fun and I love being able to stay at home and play with her and watch her learn and grow everyday!

In other news, I ran my second half marathon yesterday...I know it's not as cool as a marathon, but whenever I think about doing a whole marathon, it just seems too long. People who do whole marathons do like half marathons every time they train and I just don't think I want to put myself through that. At least not right now. It went surprisingly well though...I did a lot better than I was expecting -- 1:58:14 -- I was thinking I'd get more like 2 and 1/2 hours, so I was pleasantly surprised to get under 2. The race was in St. George, the weather was beautiful and so was the route we ran. 

before the race

Not the most flattering picture, but this was right at the end

Finished!! My friend Calli, who I ran with, and our little babes

sEvEN mOntHs

Well...7 months has gone by incredibly fast and slow at the same time. Fast, in the sense that I can't believe I already have a 7 month old baby and slow, in the sense that I can't believe BJ hasn't even finished one semester of medical school and there's still a lot left! Overall though, things are going swell! BJ is doing really well in school and is still making sure Hadley and I are his top priority. I started working at the Quick Cares here taking x-rays. It's great though because I only work when I can, so so far I've only worked about once a week, so I get to be home most of the time. And Hadley is just a pleasure to be around, for the most part:) No, she's a genuinely happy baby and we love her to death. A quick update...

-she weighs 17 lbs 5 oz and is 28 inches long

-she learned how to clap her hands, which is so fun!

-she loves to yell, especially during sacrament, and likes to jibber jabber throughout the day

-she sits up all by herself

-bath time is her favorite time of the day and she goes crazy with excitement

-when music comes on she starts bobbing back and forth

-she really seems to have a fondness for Elmo compared to all the other Sesame Streeters

-her favorite toy is a plastic bag or water bottle, she's quite simple

-she's really ticklish

-she has an obsession with my hair and I am really flattered by it:)

-she drools like crazy, but still no teeth

-she's a wonderful eater, but awful drinker

-she really likes being around other people, especially kids

-loves when I (or anyone) sing "Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree"

-she kinda poops a lot. I guess that's good, but 3 times a day, really?

-she figured out how to roll over to her back, so night time hasn't been too fun lately

-she is very smiley and it just makes you happy when she does smile at you

We love her so much and she's getting so much fun! It's been fun to watch her learn and grow, she makes us so happy!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

WeLCoMe tO vEgAS!

Obviously this isn't the greatest quality of a picture. We accidentally ended up on the strip one day after getting on the wrong freeway so we decided to stop and take a picture with this special little sign. The girl ahead of us in line to stand in front of the sign was wearing a stunning little number. A cute little revealing black bikini. She got up there and turned around and then did this really cool rap. I think I'll try and do something similar for our Christmas card this year.

We've been here for about a month now and it's been a good experience. It was especially fun having BJ home with us everyday for the first 3 weeks, but this past Monday school finally started. Our apartment is pretty much put together, but there are still some items I'd like to buy for decorating, so some of the pictures might not look the greatest, but it's still a work in progress.

I realize that our wall is very bare, but I have something in mind to place there. Don't you worry.

I came up with this idea by myself. Pinterest didn't help at all.

I wish I had a better camera or could get a better picture of her nursery. It looks cuter  all together rather than in little snippets of pictures.

There is a guest bedroom, but I didn't feel like taking pictures in there. And our bathrooms aren't done so yeah. We love visitors so if you ever need a place to stay just let me know!

Last weekend BJ and I thought we had the brilliant idea of going to a drive inn movie to see "The Dark Knight Rises". We figured Hadley would fall asleep and we'd just be able to enjoy the movie, no problem. Naive, aren't we? She fell asleep on the drive there and then the movie started, I looked back to check on her and her eyes were wide open and she was ready to watch. After about 10 minutes she started crying because she was tired, but too distracted by the movie and it was incredibly hot. Needless to say, we left and basically just wasted $15. Maybe next time, in 10 years or so.

Hadley is sitting up and doing tummy time really well now. She's started talking quite a bit this past week and is reaching more and more for things. And last night she full on laughed for the first time! It was so cute! I got it on video, but I don't know how to upload it.

Are anyone else's babies fingernails like little razors? I swear I can't cut her nails enough. Another thing...I finally understand why women have a baby and then chop there hair off. Geez, my hair is just coming out in the handfuls and it's kinda driving me crazy. I hate stray hair. I really do. It's one of my pet peeves and now I'm living it. I feel like this lady, except when I pull my hand away I'll have hair all up in my hand and she won't. She's so lucky.

I've been enjoying the Olympics these past two weeks. I love watching the gymnastics! They did a little clip on Missy Franklin, the amazing 17 year old swimmer, and she mentions how she's starting her senior year of high school in a month or so. It's so great all these young teenagers who are doing so much with their lives and have so much incredible potential. It makes me feel so good to just watch them accomplish such great feats. I'm really not bitter or anything:)

When BJ's family helped us move here we went to Lake Mead and spent a couple hours on the lake and then went to Hoover Dam. It was a lot of fun and we loved having them here to visit!

 My mom and Dan came out to visit a couple of weeks after we moved in. We were really happy they came to visit and had a fun time with them! We went to the strip one night and Hadley sure loves all the bright lights and shows. She'll probably want to work on the strip when she grows up, but we won't let her:)

By the way, it's 111 degrees today. It feels real nice.

tHrEe mOnTHs

Wow, these past few months have gone by so quick! We made the move to Henderson, Nevada last Monday (July 16th) and well, it's dang hot here (106 degrees), but everything went smooth and we are excited to be here! BJ's family drove across the US of A this summer for family vacation so they were here and helped us get moved and we were so grateful for the extra help! I'll post more about our new place at a later date. 

Hadley is getting so big! I feel like just in the past few weeks she's grown so much. She's recognizing who we are, so when she sees our faces she just lights up, which I think makes things more fun. A couple of things about this little monkey are...

-loves making bubbles, so she constantly has drool running down her face 

-has discovered her hands so she sucks on her fist and fingers a lot, and anything that's near her mouth

-she's very independent, you can just lay her down and she's totally fine (for nap and bedtime we just swaddle her up and lay her down and she puts herself to sleep. Awesome!)

-sleeps pretty good through the night, we may just have to put her binky in once or twice

-loves to face out when she's held

-loves bath time and pool time

-she makes a lot of grunting noises and we can tell that she wants to laugh, she just can't get it out yet. I'm excited for when she does!

-loves reading books

-unfortunately she also loves staring at the TV, especially when The Bachelorette is on:)

-she does great in her car seat and with travelling

-startles easily. BJ sneezed and she just started crying, granted it was the loudest, most obnoxious sneeze you'll ever hear:)

-she is basically just an incredibly great baby and we love her so much!

This is her bubble making face, she looks a little devious

bath time

She's not rolling over because tummy time just involves her licking the floor or her boppy. She makes no attempt to really even move, also because I'm bad at doing tummy time.

Watching Bachelorette. She wants Jef to win.