Kayla's new 'do

As you saw from the Christmas post, we gave Kayla a certificate to get her hair done by my friend Sue. And Kayla being a 12 yr old girl desperately wanted to get it done before she goes back to school next week. Fortunately we were able to get her in yesterday to do it. She has seriously changed her mind a ton of times on what she wanted to do to her hair. One of the last ideas was to put red on the tips of her hair so that if she didn't like it she could just cut it off! Rather clever I thought! But in the end she decided she wanted red "highlights" and found a picture of a hair cut and style that she liked. It turned out super cute and Sue did a great job and did it just like the picture!

Kayla (with a bonus Eli) before...

And Kayla after....it is hard to see the red in this pic (or maybe it is just my computer screen) but I think she looks like a totally different girl! And I think this fits her personality way better.

6 Months

WOW Hailey is already 6 months old. These last 6 months feel like they have just flown by! It seems like I was just dealing with a somewhat stressful, scary pregnancy! And now I have this cute, chubby, attention demanding baby. And by attention demanding I don't just mean the usual feed me, hold me, change my diaper and put me to bed baby. Oh no! She is the 4th....which means she has to make sure we all know she is here and won't let us forget it! She is by far my fussiest baby and knows how to let you know she needs attention. It took us a bit but we figured her out and she figured us out. We also got to learn alot about birth marks and how they work. Of course that will be a learning event for us for a while to come. She is so different from the other 3 kids. Right down to her slight head of blond hair. I think she will end up with Hazel eyes like JR and Kayla because they aren't as blue as they used to be.

She has 1 tooth and the 2nd well on it's way. You can see it just trying to break through the gums. She has only rolled over once so far from her back to her front. And she got stuck on her arm so it wasn't quite complete. But honestly, the longer it takes her to be mobile that happier I am! I fear the day her and Emma team up against me! :) She loves to stand up though. The girl has some strong legs! One of her favorite toys is a rattle that we put in her stocking. She will lay there and talk to it for quite a while. Then it manages to slide down her arm and away it goes! She also loves to chew on baby dolls and well anything that will fit in her mouth really. We started to give her baby food but didn't get past sweet potatoes. She really wasn't interested in it so we didn't push it. Saves on a mess and on the wallet for sure! Despite the chub, she has a small appetite compared to the other 3 when they were that age. And speaking of chub, she had her 6 month well baby check up and she weighs 20lbs 12oz! And she is 27 3/4" long! She is pretty much the size of a 1 yr old! I can't wait to see who my tallest kid is going to be. I wouldn't be surprised if she is the one!

Christmas '08

This year, Christmas actually seemed a little more relaxed than years past. Not exactly sure why since we still did the same routine. We open presents and have breakfast here at home and then sometime in the afternoon we head to Nana's house for more presents and dinner. My dad lives close to her so we usually go to his house to visit after dinner. Naturally, the kids had a blast and got lots of cool things. Emma is getting more into opening things and was trying to help Hailey with her stuff too. Anyways, here are a few pictures from the day.

The tree after Santa's visit

The stockings were laid out on the couch with care...we have a chimney but it is downstairs and we don't use that area!

Kayla's ultimate present....a gift certificate for Tangles Salon and Day Spa to get her hair done by my friend Sue

One of Eli's ultimate gifts from Darlin...it has this little alien with a UFO that sounds like the Jetsons vehicles!

Eli's ultimate, ultimate gift...a Nintendo DS. This is the first game system we have purchased for any of the kids!

Emma with her baby doll from Santa. Whenever you would ask her what Santa was going to bring her, the response was always "Santa's gonna bring me a baby doll"! So naturally that was what he had to do! The funny thing was that I went out one night to buy this thing and promptly showed JR and the big kids because I thought it was too darn cute. Eli is getting to the age now where he isn't sure if he believes in Santa or not. So he immediately looks up at me when she opens this thing and says something about me getting it but how can it be from Santa! Oops! And the really funny thing about this doll is that it says 5 different cheers and my 12 yr old has all of them memorized and moves to go along with them! I swear Kayla plays with this doll way more than Emma!

Hailey with her cool Peek-a-blocks from Darlin

Eli with his Nerf Vulcan from Nana....he also has a Nerf bow (he calls it his big, bad bow) so I have seriously been dealing with not just Eli playing with this thing....his father has been playing too! They love to have wars with them and we all get stuck in the middle! I even got ambushed one day by JR when I came in the front door.

One last little gift from Santa! This was at the end of the day when we finally got home from Nana's. Hailey under the tree with a portion of loot collected throughout the day!

She has a tooth!

We had our company Christmas party last Thurs at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. It was the coolest place for the party and everyone agreed that it was the best one they have had yet! Our zoo lights up a portion of the exhibits and you can go in and feed the giraffes while you are there. It does get rather cold because it is on a mountain though! Anyways, I have a friend that we swap babysitting with primarily during this time of year for shopping and parties. So she was gracious enough to come to my house at 5 so we could get to the party on time and she had to make friends with Hailey. You see, Hailey isn't friends with just anyone....the baby cries if she doesn't want you talking to her. Which is what she tends to do with my friend. So she fed her some dinner and then Hailey was cool with her. However, we got a call shortly before 8...seems Hailey was crying and she was crying good. And this wasn't your average "I'm tired and want to be rocked to sleep" types of cries. Nope, it was a cry of pain. And since my friend has 3 kids of her own then I trust her instincts! So we came home early not only to check on Hailey but to relieve my friend from a crying baby.

Friday afternoon when I am picking Hailey up from Nana's house......she has a tooth! So apparently her crying was because that tooth was finally breaking through the surface. And of course I had to call my friend to let her know what the problem was and not to take the crying personal! :)

Family game night

Kayla's school had family game night last Tues that we went to, of course! They had several different areas set up throughout the school with different activities/games going on. Of course Eli wanted to do rock band but it was way to chaotic with too many older kids (obviously) in it. So he is working on getting Nana to understand just how bad she needs that game! :) Anyways, the kids got their faces painted, bowled, did the cake walk and attempted to climb a wall! Eli decided he was going to be brave and try to climb the wall in their gym. I have no idea how tall this thing is but I would guess it to be around 15 feet. He got the lesson, climbed a couple feet and then was done! That was high enough for him! But I was proud of him for even doing that. Let's face it, the poor kid comes from a family of chickens when it comes to heights!

Eli with his spider and Kayla with her Santa hat

Eli starting his climb.....

And Eli finishing his climb!

Kayla getting ready to do the cake walk. Yeah, I made her do it which is why she has attitude. I did do it with her for 1 round but we had an extra ticket!

Pardon the photo quality...apparently I can't even remember to bring my camera anywhere anymore so I had to use my phone!

Oh Christmas Tree

Oh Christmas tree, how beautiful I think it is without ornaments! Hee hee

We put our tree up last Saturday and just before we put the ornaments on I realized I had to leave to go babysit. JR thought we should decorate as a family so he had the kids wait to do anything else. Well as I sat and looked at the tree on Sunday I really thought it would be fun to go with a color scheme on this tree since it is white. I also decided I don't like our current topper or tree skirt. However, I am not willing to buy anything until it all goes on clearance after Christmas! So the kids are protesting not decorating the tree but I am riding it out to see how long I can get away with this! :)

And yes I see the picture is blurry....couldn't really tell you what I was doing when I took it!

Still here!

So when I said not to be surprised if you don't see a post from in a bit....I didn't mean this long! Not that there haven't been blogging moments over these last 2 weeks. I just didn't do it! And because I didn't do it or even make a note on what I wanted to blog, it is all stuck in the back of the brain and it isn't coming forward. So in the meantime, I will share some cute pics with you.

Eli and Hailey sportin' the beanie caps

So sweet! She loves to cuddle!

This was Eli's bed when he was little. We had it out so that grandpa could come get it and take to my nephew Joey. My step-sister is hoping it will help motivate him to sleep in his own bed! Emma decided it would be fun to drive the car so I put Hailey's seat (it is meant for newborn to toddlers) in it and gave her Eli's wheel pillow....and away she went!

Hailey participating in her much loathed tummy time. Emma hated it too! But it's gotta be done if the girl is ever going to learn how to roll over! I know you can't really see it but I would like to point out that the blanket she is on was Kayla's when she was born!