Happy Birthday to Hallie!

On Sunday afternoon, February 27, we celebrated Hallie's upcoming 4th birthday with several little friends.  They had a "jumping good" time!  

Hallie's birthday invitation

 The party room (with Nonna and Memory)

The silly birthday girl

Hallie LOVES Audrey!

Audrey, Emily, and Hallie

Sweet little friends--Audrey, Hallie, Ivy (from ballet class) and Sophi (from Hallie's class)

"Happy Birthday to You!!!"

Present time!

Giving her friends their goody bag. :o)

Hallie's birthday present from Mommy, Daddy, Nonna, and Pop!

Hallie is FOUR!

A butterfly house from Gramps and RahRah!  So fun!

Hallie seeing her trampoline for the first time!

Pop put it together the next day while Hallie was at school!  Thanks, Pop!  We've since got the safety net up...so I'm not quite as nervous when she's jumping!  Ha!

Hallie is FOUR!

Happy, Happy Birthday to our sweet, smart, spunky, and always entertaining Hallie Shea!  We absolutely cannot believe you are FOUR years old today!  It seems like it was just yesterday that you came into the world.  And what a blessing that day was!  We had no idea how our lives could possibly be changed...enriched by someone so tiny!  You have definitely changed our lives--and we cannot imagine our life without you!  You are growing into a beautiful little lady...with a BIG personality!  We pray you never change because while you are stubborn as stubborn can be sometimes, we know that is a strong trait that will mold you into being someone who stands up for what they believe in!  We love you so much, our BIG four year old!

Daddy and Hallie...minutes after she was born

03.02.07 at 12:22 pm

6 lbs 14 oz, 18.5 inches long

A day I will certainly never forget (though there are moments throughout the delivery that I absolutely cannot recall--lol)!

And now...our four year old!

These pictures were taken a week after Hallie turned four, but I'm back-blogging on her actual birthday. :o)

Snow Day...for REAL!

On Tuesday when I saw "Waco ISD closed" running along the bottom of the screen on the local news channel, I was a bit confused.  Sure, it was 16 degrees with a wind chill of 7, but there was no precipitation the night before.  The roads were FINE!  It was just COLD!  I didn't complain, though.  But when I looked out our back window and saw it covered with a few inches of the white, fluffy stuff, I wasn't surprised at all to see we were closed today!  I gladly turned the alarm clock off and snoozed an extra couple of hours!  Once we were up, Hallie was ready to play!  Charley always goes outside to do his business first thing.  We open the garage and he takes off.  This morning was a little different...notice the circle that was made with little doggy feet in the first picutre!  He stepped out and immediately ran back into the garage to survey the situation.  After he figured out that it wasn't going anywhere, he ventured out into the snow and ended up playing in it quite a bit!

Hallie and I bundled ourselves up and headed out into the snow...I'm talking LAYERS because it was still 20 degrees this morning!  We played outside for probably an hour before deeming ourselves completely frozen.  Then we headed inside and warmed ourselves up with some marshmallows covered with hot chocolate. :o)

It has finally made it above freezing for the first time in 3 days.  It won't last long, though, b/c the temps are going to start dropping after the sunsets and then all that melted snow will refreeze.  Hopefully I can manage to get some sweet tea before that happens!  We'll see!

Charley rethinking his adventures before finally deciding to head out into the snow.  If he'd wear doggy clothes, he'd be much warmer.  He's much too cool for that.

Snowy house

Hallie stepped out of the garage and immediately threw herself onto the ground!  Ha!  She meant business...she was going to make some snow angels!  And then she began eating snow (her favorite thing about snow)!

Daddy got to join in the fun before heading to work...we got a Rubbermaid container and pushed Hallie down the driveway.  Great fun!

 And then we built a snowgirl...er blob. :o)

Hallie cleaned off the bench for a photo op. lol

Hallie and Charley

Happy Birthday, Grandmommy!

Sunday (Jan 30) was Jonathan's grandmother's birthday, so we had lunch at Gramps and RahRah's house to celebrate.  Grandmommy turned 82!  Happy Birthday, Grandmommy!

It was a little hard to get these two to look at the camera! :o)

Gramps and Grandmommy

Hallie helping Grandmommy open her present :o)

What a sweet picture!  Hallie loves her RahRah!

Hallie, Grandmommy and Jonathan with the picture Hallie made for her--"Hallie and Grandmommy Holding Hands"

After we got home, Hallie began working on another masterpiece. :o)  This has become her little art table where she does all her work.  So cute!

Babycakes!

We finally broke out the Babycakes cupcake maker.  I told Hallie we would, and even though it was really too late to be making cupcakes, we went ahead and made them!  Really...I wish I had've had more time to read the instructions.  You'll see why in one of the pictures...

The cute little pink cupcake maker!

 Hallie ready to mix!

The cupcakes are in...

 They are ready...now, the little booklet says they'll cook unevenly.  Why?!  I mean, don't you think someone could figure out a way for all the cupcake spots to heat evenly?

Ah...the reason I should have read the instructions more carefully.  I wasn't sure whether or not I could put cupcake liners in this little cutie.  I figured I could since they don't catch on fire in an extremely heated oven, but I thought "if I don't find where it says I can, then I might catch something on fire"!  And since I wasn't going to be standing right there with the cupcakes as they cooked, I didn't want to take any chances.  Wow--I wish I had've just gone ahead and taken a chance!  Sigh.  

Here's what happens when you don't use cupcake liners (which by the way, you can totally use).  I'd be lying if I said I immediately cleaned this as soon as I was finished icing the cupcakes.  I'd also be lying if I said the cupcake maker was all cleaned up and put away right now. ;o)

Our finished product!

The cutest taste-tester in the world!

 The cupcakes were delicious, by the way! :o)

Sweet Girl

It was a beautiful day before church, so Hallie decided to play a little bit before heading out.  She even let me snap a few pictures!  I love this girl.  She is such a sweetheart.

What is Hallie up to these days?  Well...she is a very curious three year old.  And I love it!  Here are a few things she loves ALL the time:
*Charley (though he isn't quite as fond of her)
*Going to Mommy's school
*Coloring and drawing (and might I add, she is really good at both!)
*Playing with Teddy Roosevelt and Thomas Jefferson (Daddy has two little president toy figurines)
*Macaroni and cheese
*School
*Jump-n-Place (so far we've been to three birthday parties there this year and Hallie wants hers there, too!)
*Cartoons and movies...but don't worry, she doesn't watch them ALL day long! :o)
*Going to Alabama (she's very excited to be seeing Nonna and Pop soon)
*Spending time with RahRah and Gramps
*Ballet and tap class
*Skirts and dresses
*Playing outside (though the weather hasn't really been prime for that)

I'm sure there are a million other things Hallie loves to do, but I just can't think of them right now.

I'll leave you with a Hallie saying and plenty of pictures...

*RahRah had jury duty a couple of weeks ago.  She was telling us that one of the men on duty fell asleep and was snoring loudly.  Hallie sweetly turned to me and said, "Mommy, why did the man fall asleep in the jewelry box?"