Happy Hallie-ween!

Hallie had such a fun evening! We took her to a friend's church for their Fall Festival--our church didn't have theirs this year (so sad). When we pulled into the church parking lot, Hallie started saying, "Oh boy! Oh boy!" She is SO fun! Once inside, it only took Hallie about 30 seconds to warm up and feel right at home! There were several little "booths" right up her alley. By the end of the night, she had gotten the hang of it all...play the game, get a prize, put it in my bag. The last thing she did was the Cake Walk--her favorite (and the only one we didn't get a picture of!). She loves walking around in circles to the music. It was SO cute to watch her stop on a number square once the music stopped. She really knew what she was doing. She got so excited when she won and got to pick out a treat--homemade chocolate chip and pecan cookies (which she loved!). We had so much fun watching her excitement with everything! She is such a joy!

Our little trick-or-treater!

Gramps and Hallie

This little episode happened about five minutes after Hallie's
arrival. She had never seen this little boy, Evan, but they
hit it off. She liked him even more when she found out his
costume for the night was Elmo (which he later put on). These
two had the crowd's attention!
Enjoy the sweet giggles!

There were little bouncy balls hidden in the rice. Hallie
loves bouncy balls and really enjoyed playing in the rice.

This was the cutest booth--"Holy Elephant". The kids gave the elephant (a facade of an elephant with a hole cut out...someone's arm was the elephant's trunk) a peanut and he ate it and then gave the kids candy. Halie absolutely LOVED this!

Hallie loved choosing the ducks!

A little fisherman

Picking Proverbs...the suckers had Proverbs around them. Cute!

She quickly figured out to put her prizes in her bag!

Going home.

Enjoying her treat! You can see she had a treat of chocolate chip
cookie before her sucker!

Halloween Party

Hallie had a little Halloween party at her little "school" tonight. We were running late and thought about not going. Her costume was supposed to be a ballerina. But then she got the CUTEST little Auburn cheerleader outfit from Nonna, so we switched gears. Unfortunately, the cheerleader outfit was too big (maybe next Halloween) so I had to quickly shift gears back to ballerina. Nothing was ready, so I literally threw the outfit together in about 15 minutes. So it isn't complete in these pictures. We're very glad we decided to go on to the party! Hallie had a blast! She loved being around the other kids (older siblings of other babies that go to her "school") and LOVED the cake walk! She was too cute walking around in the circle and stopping when the music stopped! We can't wait for tomorrow's Fall Festival--she is going to have so much fun!

Walking the Cake Walk

Getting Ready for a Move

We're getting ready to move this weekend, so we began cleaning things up. Usually we would clean under the bed because of Charley (our dog). This time we had to clean up under our bed because of a little girl named Hallie. She absolutely LOVES to hide things under the bed (she is HILARIOUS!)!! This is all the stuff she had under the bed. I've gotta say...she gets the pack-rat gene from her Mommy. haha. :o)

Hallie was helping us clean--only not so much.
She got all of Mommy's purses out and tried
to wear them all!

Oh boy!

Hallie got a very special package from Nonna and Pop! She dug through the box--I think she was hoping for shoes. When Daddy pulled out the box of shoes, Hallie got very excited. The girl has a thing for shoes! :o) Here are a couple of videos we took...the first one is a little long, but I didn't want to miss the "shoe ah-ha" moment! Enjoy!

Hallie Screams for Ice Cream!

Hallie loves bath time. Pair bath time with a milkshake and you've got pure bliss! You're going to want to turn down the volume for this one...otherwise you'll hear glasses breaking! I love her excitement. She is such a joy and blessing!

Congrats, Arpit and Sabena!

Jonathan and I went to Dallas for a friend's wedding last weekend. It was a traditional Indian wedding--very festive and very colorful! The ceremony was beautiful. I would love to upload pictures, but I wasn't able to get one good shot with the lighting. Well, I did get one good one, but Sabena hadn't arrived to the ceremony tent yet, so that kind of defeats the purpose. Just trust me that it was beautiful! It's rare that Jonathan and I get a picture together. Hallie spent the day with Gramps and RahRah, so we took advantage of this photo opportunity! :o)

For my Pop

While Hallie was enjoying Mommy's shoes (which she does daily, several times a day--I can't keep them put away!), she spotted a banana on the counter. She told me she wanted it. It has been a while since I've offered her a banana because she liked it as a little baby and then stopped wanting it. When I've offered it to her, she always refuses. So, I wasn't sure if I wanted to waste my yummy banana. But since she was politely requesting it (signing please), I obliged. I thought she just wanted to play with it. I was surprised by what happened next. She handed it back to me and signed her own language of peeling the banana! I asked her if she wanted Mommy to peel it and she nodded yes. After peeling it, she took the banana and ate about half of it! I had to snap pictures for Pop (Banana's #1 fan! haha!). Next up, banana sandwiches!

A Sunday Afternoon

Since moving to Waco, we get to spend Sunday afternoons with the family. It's always very relaxing, and Hallie gets to do lots of playing and exploring--specifically collecting rocks, entertaining Gramps and Ra-Ra, and playing with Uncle Jeremy (when he's there). Here are a few pictures of our precious one. I'm going to call some of them her 18 month pictures since it seems like she'll be two before I ever actually get official ones. However, these are technically 19 month pictures of our sweet little Hallie!

Helping Ra-Ra feed the birds (um, squirrels).

Playing with Uncle J

These two played hide-and-seek in
their little tent for about
15 minutes! I guess they didn't realize
their legs weren't covered. ;o)

A day in the life of Hallie...

Today was a Saturday like no other we've had so far. Our little Hallie pooped in the potty (I'm sure she'll love this blog 10 years from now--lol!)!! The past few days, she has been touching her diaper and saying "Shoo, shoo" (like it stinks) and shaking her head. We noticed yesterday that she did this about 20-30 seconds or so before she tee-teed or made a stinky. This morning she did the same little sound while touching her diaper and I asked her if she needed to use the potty. She nodded "yes", so I stripped her down (she was still in her pajamas) and sat her on the potty. She sat there for a few seconds, then jumped down. Then she patted it, wanting up again. I put her back up there and she made a nice little poopie face. Then she scooted off the potty. She made her stinky sound and waved toward the potty and I said, "You didn't make a stinky". Then she looked inside and nodded "yes", so I looked...and there her little stinky was! LOL! She knew what she was talking about! We were so proud of her! She was very proud of herself as she flushed the potty. (I unfortunately didn't get a picture of her actually sitting on the potty.)

Hallie is 19 months old, and we've been saying that she has been showing readiness signs for potty-training for a couple of months now. But we don't want to rush her. We decided we would go ahead and buy her a little potty all her own (although I think she kinda likes using the big potty) today. She was SO excited to open it up. We got lots of "oh-boy, oh-boy, oh-boy"! :o) So precious. I didn't get a good video of her opening the potty, though. Hallie may not use her potty for another 6 months, but it's there if she wants to. We'll definitely follow her lead with this potty-training thing!

Here is Hallie's day in pictures. :o)

Using the potty for the first time!

With all her friends, writing about going
to the potty, I'm sure. :o)
*From L-R: Righty, Moe, and Monkey

Victory Ice Cream

Riding with Elmo and Zoe after the potty purchase!

Sitting on her potty.

Hallie loves, loves, loves shoes. I couldn't pass
up these cute little pumpkin "crocs". :o)

Sharing the victory with Daddy!

Heart o' Texas Fair & Rodeo

Even though Jonathan and I weren't feeling that great, we trudged through for Hallie. We just didn't want her to miss the excitement of the fair. And she did not disappoint us with her excitement! She wasn't crazy about the Petting Zoo, but she loved all the lights and people. Her absolute favorite thing was the merry-go-round! She had to ride it twice. The pictures just don't show her excitement at its best, but her sweet smile hints toward it!

Not so sure about the baby goat...

Waiting for the carousel to begin.

Daddy played a "sure-to-win-a-prize-for-Hallie" game!

Hallie was so excited about this lizard...and she makes
him "walk" all over our house, too!

Second time to ride--with Daddy!

Woo-hoo for the fair!
(She was saying "woo-hoo")

Hallie was waving the whole time she was
riding the carousel--with Jonathan and with me!

Pop Goes the Hallie!

Teething, Appendicitis, and Strep! Oh My!

Did you read that title correctly? Yeah, you unfortunately did. Sure, our camera batteries have been on the blink lately and we've been unable to get any pictures, but for the past couple of weeks we have all been out of commission. :o/ Hallie had a runny nose and icky cough--due to teething (cutting the eye teeth), I'm guessing b/c it never really slowed her down. Then last Monday Jonathan took himself to the doctor--a sure sign that he's not quite feeling up to par--with severe stomach pains. Turns out he had appendicitis and had to have an emergency appendectomy. Geez. So, he was seen around noon, sent for bloodwork and stomach x-rays, told the diagnosis was inconclusive based on the x-rays and sent for a sonogram. This showed a sick appendix and he was then sent to the hospital for admittance. Poor guy. This all happened in just a couple of hours. Oh, and he threw up a lot in those couple of hours, too. Again...poor guy! Around 5:30, he was wheeled away for surgery prep.
Around 6:45, we got the news that his appendix was sicker than the surgeon had thought, but that everything looked great. A lot of cleaning was done and he was in recovery. He had a laparoscopic appendectomy. He was discharged on Tuesday afternoon and has been lounging around, letting himself heal. He's doing much better now. :o)

I started feeling crummy on Thursday. I had been staying home with Jonathan since the whole appendectomy situation and was dreading going back to work on Friday--mostly b/c it was a lot of fun to be home with my two favorite people (we kept Hallie home with us). My throat was sore and I was running a low-grade fever, but I didn't feel like I could take any more days so went on to school on Friday. I felt progressively worse and Jonathan scheduled an appointment for me Friday afternoon. Fever--yes. Step test--positive. I got a nice, strong shot of antibiotics. Yay for shots! :o) I'm feeling much better.

Needless to say, it has been a long week or so. But it looks like we're all on the mend!

Boo-boos and iced animal crackers...

Jonathan's first night home from the hospital was quite an eventful evening with his temp spiking to 101 and more vomiting. I put a migraine patch (cold gel) on his head in the middle of the night. Hallie woke him up with questions of "Boo-boo? Boo-boo?" and pointing to Jonathan's forehead. Then she peeled the gel patch off (it wasn't cold anymore anyway) and proceeded to put it on her head. She also requested an iced animal cracker--before breakfast (gasp!). I think it all made her feel much better! She was very worried about Da-da and all his boo-boos!

What's Your Name?

Randomness

While Mommy and Daddy were on the look out for Christmas toys, Ra-Ra and Gramps snuck in a "right now" toy! Hallie got this really great guitar. It is so cute...it even has "strings" that play! She loves it! In keeping with this random post, here's a cutie-pie picture of Hallie enjoying a little Strawberry Shortcake. She liked the angel food cake OK, and even the strawberries, but her overall best part was the whipped cream! :o) Of course!