Bobby Pins and a Band-Aid tin

The wheels were turning...

Yesterday, Hallie and I stopped by my school to turn in some paperwork and to check on things in my classroom. We visited with a few new friends who Hallie has quickly grown to love. She had her little spikey ball with her, throwing it and rolling it. Then she put it down and kicked it. I was so proud of her! She was quite proud of herself, too. :o)

Skip to supper last night...we had Jonathan's dad over for "Hallie's Favorite Spaghetti" (Grammy is in Missouri at camp). Hallie was entertaining, as usual, when I began to tell Jonathan the story of her kicking the ball. There was a random ball in the kitchen and I asked Hallie if she could show Daddy how she can kick. The questioning went on a few more times and then Jonathan began to ask Hallie if she could show him how she can kick. Hallie stood there for about 15 seconds--you could see the wheels turning! Then without any prompting, she proceeded to stretch out on the floor on her tummy, arms in front...and then she began kicking her legs as if she were swimming!

We all absolutely cracked up at her! She stood there, thinking about how she could show Jonathan how she can kick...and rather than getting a ball and kicking it, she chose a different way! We were completely caught off guard at this display of thinking skills. It was pretty cute...and we were pretty proud of her, if I can just say so! :o)

Trip to Austin

I had a teacher conference in Austin so we made a little trip out of it. Grammy (who I believe is now going to be called "Ra-Ra"), Hallie, and I headed down to Austin on Wednesday afternoon. While I was starting the conference, Grammy and Hallie were starting the fun! Their fun continued on Thursday--Grammy gave lots of rides on the luggage carts. And Hallie had a blast going up and down the steps in our hotel. We met Daddy, Gramps, and Uncle Jeremy for dinner to celebrate Gramps's birthday. Then Grammy went home and Daddy joined us. Daddy and Hallie had fun on Friday and Saturday! He didn't give quite as many luggage cart rides as Grammy, but Hallie still had fun! :o) They of course, went to the pool for a little bit when I returned from the conference. She is such a water baby! Hallie also loved riding the elevator and was a pro by the end of our trip. She would run in as soon as the door opened and then stand in the very back. As soon as the door opened, she would head out--thankfully it never opened on the wrong floor! haha. I tried to get a picture and video of how cute she was going into the elevator, but she wouldn't go all the way in until Mommy was safely inside with her. :o)

Luggage cart ride with Grammy!

Hallie was waiting on me in the lobby when I got
back from my session on Thursday. :o) Obviously
she was not wanting to be in a picture, but
wanting to continue her trek up and down the steps!

Jumping off the side--Hallie's favorite pool activity!

Ah...this is the life...

Hallie was nakey from changing out of her
swimsuit. She also had a cookie...she loved
rolling all over the big, comfy bed. :o)

In the elevator...

So tired!

We were all tuckered out after our little weekend getaway. Hallie fell asleep on the way home/to lunch. After lunch with the fam we all headed to our respective homes. After letting Hallie play for a little while, I put her down for another nap (which she didn't fight at all). Once she was down, I curled up on the couch and took a little nap. About 2 hours later, I heard a faint whisper "Kendra..." and I roused from my sleep to find Hallie snuggled up to Daddy! She had woke up after about an hour and a half. Jonathan got her and they were watching cartoons (more for Daddy than Hallie, I'm sure--lol!) It wasn't 15 minutes later that Daddy joined Hallie in napping. Daddy decided to lay Hallie down and see if she would continue her nap...she did! So I snapped some pretty cute pictures of my two favorite people! :o)

Weekend Getaway

Jonathan, Hallie, and I ventured to Glen Rose, TX with Grammy and Gramps this past weekend. It was a fun and restful weekend of just hanging out! Hallie loved the baby pool and the big pool, too. But I think she had the most fun in the bathtub! We went to the town square for some ice cream and to window shop in the cute little stores. We even found one called "Grammy's Junction", so we had to have a picture taken there! :o)

Hallie loved "walking" Charley in our hotel. I'm
not sure Charley was quite as thrilled about it!

There was a little fish pond by the pool with
huge goldfish. In hindsight, I should have
taken a picture. :o/

Hallie loved the baby pool. It was about 1.5 ft
deep and she walked around in there like
she knew what she was doing. She even
went completely under a few times and didn't
get upset at all!

Hallie loved walking behind the waterfalls!

Jumping off the side is always fun!

Fun with Grammy and Gramps

Taking a break from the hard work of having fun!

Grammy's Junction

Too cute!

Fun in the tub

Add your own caption...

What's in your 'fridge?

Hallie loves to "play" in the refrigerator. And I know this phase won't last long, so I usually let her explore. I try to keep things on the bottom shelf that she can eat or get to if she wants it. I opened the refrigerator earlier to find one stuffed monkey--dubbed "Mr. Moe-dangles" these days--on the bottom shelf. Stuffed monkey for dinner, anyone? :oD

Friday Fun Pictures

Last night, we had Jonathan's parents over for dinner...Hallie's favorite--spaghetti. Hallie has a lot of new favorites...I'll post those another time. :o) One of her new loves is to climb on everything she can possibly climb on! Well, last night Hallie was climbing on her beloved Hippo (the little push toy). She does this often, but usually just stands in the middle. This time she tries to balance on her head. As I'm walking over to her, to get her down, Hippo slides right out from under her, sending Hallie flying to the ground. She wailed and wailed. We thought she was OK, though--no bumps or bruises. She was snuggled up to me and then looked up at me with blood trickling from her lip. I pulled it down to find a black and bloody lip. Poor thing! So, Hallie has her first fat lip...and I'm sure it won't be her last. We put some lidocaine on it and she seemed fine. Today she is as silly as ever, climbing once again on anything she can climb on! I see she didn't learn any lessons from falling off Hippo.

Showing off her new outfit from Nonna

Reading with Grandmommy

This morning...climbing in the dishwasher!

Hallie's lip

Welcome Home

When Hallie and I got home from San Antonio, we had a banner and a bunch of balloons to greet us! Hallie squealed in delight when she saw the balloons and immediately started running after them! What a sweet surprise for us!

I was showing Jonathan some of the great deals I got at NY & Company with a gift card I had after we got home. I got this really cute 3/4 sleeved hoodie pull-over. Jokingly, I put the hood on and Hallie thought it was the funniest thing. When I took the hoodie off, Hallie got really upset and started signing "again" (I swear, she's never going to actually SAY this word). So, I took her cue and put it back on, playing around. When I took the hood off, she wanted it back on. When I was done with her little game, she pitched a fit, wanting me to put it back on. So, I put it on her (well, the hood anyway) and that sufficed. I took it off, though, when I noticed how dirty the bottom was getting (I really needed to sweep!). She was not happy. So I went and got her little hoodie jacket and she wore it the rest of the evening! She is such a funny little girl! Very particular about what she likes and wants...oh boy! LOL!

Dancing with the streamers...really, I have no idea
what's going on here! I think she gets her dance
moves from her daddy!

San Antonio Reunion

Hallie and I made a little trip down to San Antonio earlier this week. I needed to pick up some of my school boxes from my friend's classroom and a few things from our garage (since I'll be going back into the classroom starting mid-August). So, I made a little visit out of it.

Our first stop was at my sweet friend, Stephanie's house. We got to know them through church and became fast friends. Steph and I get along so well, and our husbands do, too! We hated to make such great friends and then have to move. :o/ Her little ones and Hallie play so well together. Her youngest is just a couple of weeks younger than Hallie, so it has been fun to see their milestones reached together! We enjoyed our stay with them and wish we could have stayed longer. We went to our favorite--Chick-fil-A--where Hallie had her very first ice cream cone. Austin is a seasoned ice cream cone eater and didn't make near the mess Hallie did (most of hers ended up on the floor)! After that, it was play time on the CFA playground. Liam did not want me to take his picture and would run up the slide everytime I tried! Back at their house, the kids had a great time just playing around and being silly. We love you guys and miss you!!

Our second stop was Jennifer's classroom at good 'ole Powell Elementary! I got to see a couple of friendly faces from my time there and got the classroom decorating bug while seeing what all Jennifer had up on her walls already. She is getting her room ready because she will be welcoming sweet baby Grayson in the next couple of weeks! Hallie had a blast pushing her baby doll stroller up and down the hallways on the tile floors! She could go fast! HA! We hadn't seen Jennifer (or the other crew) since the end of March...when Hallie wasn't getting around quite so splendidly! We had lunch at our favorite (again)...CFA. It was pretty calm. Afterward, Hallie played on the playground. I went to refill Jennfer's and my drinks. Upon returning to the playground, I saw Jennifer moving around frantically along with one other parent. I asked what was going on, then realized that Hallie wasn't in the toddler area. I looked up to see that my 16 month old had climbed up the stairs to the very top of the playground and was having the best time running on the little bridge! I wasn't worried...I didn't think she would go down the slide by herself (and she didn't). She was just having fun in all the little pods up high. I let her play a little while, keeping a close eye on her, and then she and I slid down the slide together. I know Jennifer felt bad, but I assured her that it was not a big deal. Hallie is quite quick and thinks she's as big as the "big kids"! After lunch went back to Jennifer's house and just visited. I got to see baby Grayson's nursery--so cute...all cowboy themed! Hallie helped herself to a few burp clothes (sorry, Jen!)--folding them, unfolding them, etc.--and wanted to play with all of the baby's toys. After a little shopping, we had dinner and then had our own little slumber part after Hallie was put to bed. It was a fun night of chatting! We miss you lots!

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip--nothing extremely exciting, but aren't all these kiddies just precious?!

Hallie's first ice cream cone

Austin knew what he was doing!

Liam heading up the slide to avoid the camera!

Aw! So sweet! Hallie had the basketball in her
mouth, but paused to give Austin a quick hug!

Sarah is such a sweetheart! Hallie loves her!

Big sister, little brother

My attempt at getting all 4 kids in a picture...
you can see it didn't work. Liam refused to join them!

Hallie decked out in some of Grayson's
cowboy gear! Uncle Jeremy, I'm ready to
help you with the cows!

New Hobby

On occasion, I enjoy finding a new hobby. I really enjoy sewing, but with my sewing machine in my garage in San Antonio, sewing has been out of the question. So as I was browsing for baby gifts online, I saw the most adorable hand-embroidered little onesies and shirts and thought "I can do that". So, I asked my mother-in-law if she knew how to hand-embroider and she does; so she gave me a little lesson. This was my first attempt at it, and I enjoyed it thoroughly! It is extremely relaxing. One of my very best friends is having a little boy very soon, so I wanted to give her something extra special. And those of you who have recently had a baby or are about to have a baby, you can look for one of these in the mail (but wont' say "Grayson", I promise! HA!).

Strollers and Music

Yes, this video is a little lengthy. I'm sorry! I just wanted Nonna and Pop, Grammy and Gramps and all the other people who love Hallie oh-so-much to get a full picture of how cute and silly she truly is! :o) By the way, she absolutely loves this doll stroller. She pushes it around constantly. It sometimes has to go on little trips with us, although Hallie is usually OK leaving it in the car if we're going to HEB, the mall, Target, etc. She just needs to know it's close by. One day her daddy put her in it, and she has loved getting in it ever since (even though it says do not put a real, live baby in it--oops). This video captured the first time she has tried to put herself in it!

Mountainview Spray Ground

Hallie is a new fan of the Mountainview Spray Ground. She had SO much fun this evening as she played in the water fountains. We put her swimsuit on before we left, and when we got to the car she was very upset at us as she pointed to the swimming pool. Poor thing thought she was going swimming. However, her disappointment quickly faded when we pulled up to the spray ground! She began squealing in delight and pointing to the fountains. It was the cutest thing. As usual, we took entirely too many pictures. While I have a few favorites, I wanted to show just how much she enjoyed herself!

**Nonna (and anyone else!), if you want to view the pictures again, just click the "X" in the top right corner. And if you want to view the picture bigger, click on the whole block of pictures. It'll open a new window. :o)

a little long...

Yes, this video is a little lengthy. I'm sorry! I just wanted Nonna and Pop, Grammy and Gramps and all the other people who love Hallie oh-so-much to get a full picture of how cute and silly she truly is! :o) By the way, she absolutely loves this doll stroller. She pushes it around constantly. It sometimes has to go on little trips with us, although Hallie is usually OK leaving it in the car if we're going to HEB, the mall, Target, etc. She just needs to know it's close by. One day her daddy put her in it, and she has loved getting in it ever since (even though it says do not put a real, live baby in it--oops). This video captured the first time she has tried to put herself in it!

Echols Look-alike Meter

OK--I saw this on someone else's blog, so I totally stole it..just for fun, of course! :o) I actually did it twice. The first time--with these pictures--it said Hallie looked 14% more like me. LOL! When I did it again with different pictures, it said Hallie looks equally alike both parents. I already KNOW who Hallie looks like (Jonathan), but it was fun to see that at some point, she looks 14% like the gal who carried her for 9 months and birthed her! LOL! :o) Hallie is absolutely precious no matter who she looks like (Jonathan). And every now and then, she'll make a face that makes me think of pictures I've seen of myself when I was a baby.

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Geneology - Family pictures

Sparkley Sparklers!

We weren't sure if Hallie would enjoy fireworks this year or not so we decided not to keep her out late for fireworks in case she was frightened by them (it doesn't get pitch black dark here until about 9:30!). We did, however, decide we'd try some sparklers! She wasn't too sure about them at first, but kept close to us as she watched them burn. She decided the safety of her little Kangaroo Climber was the best place to watch! After her bath and bedtime routine, some neighbors behind our apartments were shooting fireworks, so we stood on the balcony a while and watched them. We could also see some of the city fireworks. She enjoyed them for a few minutes and then she was done and ready for bed! Jonathan told her that in a few years he would tell her all about why people shoot fireworks on the 4th of July and what they're celebrating. I bet she can't wait! ;o)