Anniversary Weekend

(06.05.09)
Last weekend, Jonathan and I left Hallie in the very loving and capable hands of Gramps and RahRah (and Uncle Jeremy) and headed to Dallas to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. While we were sad to leave the little girl (who said, "don't go on a date, Mommy"), we were glad to get away and spend some time together! We stayed at the Hyatt Regency on Reunion, and it was beautiful! The downside to it only being us is that we have no really good pictures b/c the one with the longest arms is the one who gets to take the shot usually! haha. On our way to Dallas, we stopped at the Czech Stop Bakery--they have the most DIVINE cream cheese kolaches. If you're never experienced these, I'm so sorry! If you're ever heading north on I-35 from Waco or anywhere more southern, you absolutely must stop here! We spent Saturday just hanging out. We went to the mall and shopped a bit and then headed to an IMAX movie--Night at the Museum 2. After that we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner reservations at Newport's (seafood). It was pretty yummy...the best part was the calamari, though! :o) After dinner, we searched for The Cheesecake Factory to enjoy some yummy dessert! On Sunday we headed back to Waco, stopping at the Hillsboro outlet mall on the way home. Now, for me, the outlets were great b/c I really only wanted to go to Carter's, Gymboree, GAP, and The Children's Place. But for someone who's not a mommy, they were pretty horrible--lots of available spaces. Not sure how much longer they'll last! When we got back to Waco, our precious little one was napping soundly. We were so eager for her to wake up! When she finally did, she was pretty excited to see Mommy and Daddy! And believe me, we were thrilled to see her! We had a great weekend getaway, but we were very glad to have our little princess back in our arms!

Thanks to Gramps and RahRah for helping out with our baby-free weekend (and our anniversary dinner)...also, big thanks to Nonna and Pop for our hotel for the weekend (their gift to us)! We love ya'll! :o)

More on Hallie's weekend getaway from Mommy and Daddy when we get the pictures! :o) She had a blast, that's for sure!

Getting ready to go...Hallie's not sure why her
bags are packed, but she says she's ready to go.
That is, until she finds out Mommy and Daddy are
going on a date. Her response was a sad,
"Don't go on a date!"

At our hotel

After dinner

Old Hat, New Hat

(06.02.09)
As I have mentioned before, Hallie loves to read! She has 5-6 books she wants to read every night. We have started leaving out words in her old favorites for her to fill in as we're reading. I am thrilled that she already has a love for reading, and hope that she continues to nurture that love! I know her Daddy and I both love to read! This night, after her bath, she ran into her room, grabbed a book, crawled up into her bed, and began reading. First it was her "prinpress" book, Cinderella. Then it was Animal Orchestra, then it was Old Hat, New Hat. Old Hat, New Hat is definitely her favorite right now...and she says the title SO adorably! I have been wanting to capture her saying it for quite some time, but just haven't been able to. She was in a spunky mood, so I was able to grab the camera and take a few pictures and videos. I hope you enjoy her little video of Old Hat, New Hat. You'll see that she's pretty excited with herself to recite an entire page (Too red, too dotty, too blue, too spotty). :o) I am so glad I was able to capture that moment!

Hallie's night time book list:
*Cinderella
*Old Hat, New Hat
*The Jolly Barnyard
*Animal Orchestra
*Wake up, Sleepy Bear
*Never Talk to Strangers
*Put Me in the Zoo

Hallie's New Bike {sort of}

(06.01.09)
Looking for something fun to do outside and as a family, we decided to get a bike seat for Hallie. While I'm not brave enough to put it on my bike, Jonathan is plenty brave enough to put it on his! I really wanted a bike trailer so I could pull Hallie and ride to the park (a few blocks away) during the day. But we decided (OK, J decided) that a bike seat would be smarter. He was right...sort of. We don't know whether or not Hallie would've liked the trailer--she probably would have since it would have been her way of getting to the park. However, she absolutely LOVES the bike seat! With the exception of this past weekend since we were out of town, we've ridden bikes every night. We all get some fresh air and some exercise! :o)

Hallie helping Daddy with the bike seat.

So excited!

Ready to ride!

Sunday Swimming Fun!

(05.31.09)

I know I've said it before, but really...Hallie LOVES her little swimming pool! Now that it's summertime, she is requesting to "go swimming" lots more. And she is getting braver and braver--now climbing up the little ladder and sliding all by herself. She is so much fun to watch!

This is new--standing on one foot. :o)
I think she's trying to do a little ballet!

Watch out, Mr. Roly Poly...Hallie's after you!

So funny--Hallie was getting a little handful of
water...she would just throw herself over the
edge of the pool and come up with her little
hand cupped with water. :o)

She removed every edge to her little foam
squares and insisted they all be put into
the pool. Why? I have no idea!

Her sweet little swimsuit!

Happy Birthday, Miss Pattie!

Saturday (May 30th) was Miss Pattie's 60th birthday party! Miss Pattie takes care of sweet Hallie during the day. Hallie took her a watering can to her. Hallie wasn't too sure about seeing Miss Pattie and Miss Lou on a Saturday...she was afraid she might have to stay. Miss Pattie had the party decorated beautifully--I wish I had gotten some pictures of the centerpieces. They were flowerpots with little vines coming down a post with pictures of all the kids she has kept through the years--and she has been in the daycare business for a long time, so there were lots of pictures! Her party was for all of "her kids". It was really special! She had a bouncy house, ice cream, face painting, balloons, and lots more for the kids. They went over to the splash park (at one of our city parks), too. (We didn't do that since Hallie was recovering from strep.) Hallie really enjoyed the bouncy house--it's the first one she's really been in since Abby's birthday party last year. She LOVED it!

Giving Miss Pattie her birthday present.

Jumping!

Jonathan and I needed to run some errands after Miss Pattie's party and Gramps and RahRah kindly offered to take Hallie to Lion's Park to ride the train before going home! We tell Hallie that Mommy and Daddy are going on a date and that she's going to go on a date with Gramps and RahRah. So she'll say, "Have fun on date!" to us as she's waving goodbye! On their date, they rode the train (another Hallie favorite) and then Hallie had to twist their arm to let her ride the carousel. They had my camera and caught some really cute pictures of their little evening together.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was fun with family and friends! Uncle Jeremy even brought Mouse, his horse. We cooked out and enjoyed each other's company. It was a fun, relaxing day! Hallie got to play in her pool (one of her favorite things to do right now!), and visit with Jeni and baby Gabriel.

Hallie wasn't too sure of Mouse, but enjoyed
watching him eat an apple.

Hey, there's a guy on a horse in my front yard!

Two of Hallie's favorite people!

Jeni and baby Gabriel (with his cute, big boy haircut!)

Hallie playing in her pool--fun times!

Memorial Day Weekend

I'm obviously playing catch up. Now that it's summer, hopefully I'll do a better job of keeping up Hallie's blog. We'll see! The Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, we took Hallie to the zoo. It was a hot, muggy Saturday, but we (OK, I) had decided we'd take Hal to the zoo. We get there and Hallie is so excited about being at the zoo--she's went twice last summer, so we knew she'd be more interested in it this go around. We got our tickets, walked in, saw the monkeys (and a squirrel) and it began to pour down rain. We had not been ther 15 minutes before it started raining! So, we went to the snack shop and Jonathan went to get a rain check. Hallie had a little snack and we left. She was so excited...I guess she thought that was all there was to the zoo! haha. We headed to Chick-fil-A for some lunch and play. While it didn't work out quite as I had hoped, it was still a fun-filled day! :o)

At the waterfall...before the rain!

A friendly squirrel!

Mommy and Daddy with the Princess!

Since the zoo didn't work out, Hallie thought
she'd try her own form of entertainment...
I must put the diaper cream where she
cannot reach it! HA!

Busy Busy

This past week has been quite a busy one with me wrapping up the end of the school year; I haven't had the extra time to post. Of course, that doesn't mean that we've just been doing nothing! We've been busy at home, too.

We celebrated Memorial Day with family. There'll be more on Memorial Day weekend in its own post. Then Tuesday night was Awards Night for K-2. I didn't have to go, so I offered to watch one of my teacher friend's youngest daughter so she could attend her kindergarten daughter's awards ceremony (and actually get to watch). We had a blast! Emily is 3, and Hallie was extra excited to have a new friend here to play! They played with the dollhouse, with the trike and car, in the pool...and had a snack together. It was a lot of fun and we hope to have Emily (along with Audrey and Hudson) over again soon! This fun evening will have its own post, too! :o)

Hallie started feeling a little under the weather on Wednesday night, running a little fever. The fever hung around Thursday morning and Daddy just couldn't bring himself to take the little princess to Miss Pattie's. So he stayed with her until lunch. At lunch time, I came home and got Miss Hallie and took her to school with me. She absolutely loved it! I didn't let her play with the other kids b/c of her not feeling well (I didn't want her to spread her germs), so she laid on her Monkey Mat under my table and watched Mary Poppins--and wrote on the white board at her discretion. haha. Thank goodness Rah-Rah picked her up around 12:30 to let her have a restful afternoon until her doctor's appointment. Oh, the doctor's visit. Sigh. We absolutely love love love our pediatrician. We are so blessed to have found her. Hallie loves her, too--at least she did. Dr. Popejoy checked Hallie out and said her lymph nodes were a little swollen (throat) and that her throat was really red, so she wanted to do a strep test. She'd do a throat culture swab, too, in case the strep test came back negative. She got a great swab on the little girl, but Hallie was M. A. D. MAD! She cried for about 10 seconds and then got the look of vomiting on her face...I know that look all too well! And just as I suspected, the "water works of the mouth" began. Ugh. She threw up, and threw up, and threw up some more. Bless her sweet heart. Dr. Popejoy felt absolutely horrible. About 10 minutes later (and lots of snuggling in Mommy's lap) Dr. Popejoy returned. She said, "I was starting to feel worse and worse about doing the strep test...but I am so glad I did b/c it was positive." So sad. So we got some medicine for the little girl and she is now feeling MUCH better. In fact, after her medicine last night, she said, "I feel bettie [better]. I take medcine [medicine]." :o) So precious.

After resting the rest of Thursday evening and staying home on Friday, too, Hallie was feeling almost good as new come Saturday morning. We watched our usual Lomax: The Hound of Music (PBS) and ate oatmeal. She was excited b/c after naptime we were going to go to Miss Pattie's 60th birthday party for a little while. (Miss Pattie keeps Hallie.) That'll be another post on its own (I had better get busy with the other posts). After the party, Hallie went to ride the train at Lion's Park (one of Hallie's favorite things) while Mommy and Daddy did a little shopping.

Today...we have rested. Hallie played in her little pool b/c it was SO hot outside, and Daddy put together Mommy's birthday present--a swing for our deck! It is so very comfortable...I love it!

So, hopefully I will get all these things posted soon. For now, I need to grade my LAST set of papers for these kiddies...hip hip hooray! I don't have many to grade, but grades for the report cards are due tomorrow, so I had better get busy! Thursday at noon is my last day with the kids. I'll have a work day Thursday afternoon and Friday...so next Sunday, I'll be completely stress free as I won't have to go to work the next day!!

One last thing...Jonathan and I are compiling a list of "Hallie-isms" that we will surely miss when she grows out of her toddler-talk. I hope to post those soon. I'ts harder than you think to think of all those sweet little words that you know she'll soon not say anymore. We still talk about our niece Abby saying, "Non't know" for don't know. :o)

Off to get busy!

I can't post a post that long and not have at least one picture...

Gramps and Rah-Rah got Hallie a new bath towel
that says "Princess" and has a little crown at
the top! How cute?!

Hallie's TWO pictures!

Finally! About a month after Hallie turned two, we took her out to a field and took some very sweet pictures of her. Jonathan turned the car stereo up and she danced and played. She could not have been sweeter for this little personal photo shoot, and she had so much fun! :o) While there were over 200 pictures taken, I have fought the urge to post all of them! So...here are my Top 15 taken that day!

Swimming Fun...and chilly too!

After a rainy Saturday, our Sunday turned out beautifully! We enjoyed church, lunch after church, a nap for two very cranky girls (yes, Mommy was cranky, too), and then some sunshine! We took the pool outside and hooked the water hose up to the elephant and let the fun begin! While all last week the weather was extremely hot and sunny, today we were confused by the mid-70s weather! Hallie was not a coward...although it was quite chilly outside, she braved the cold for the fun of the pool! She slid, she splashed, she jumped around. She tried her best to convince Charley th join her. No such luck. :o) She begged Daddy and Mommy to get in the water, but we both said we were too big (quite true, but it was also FREEZING!). Hallie was shivering, bless her sweet heart, but assured us she was not cold. When she had had enough, she went up to Daddy and said, "I need these clothes osh (off)." So cute! She was shivering from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. After getting on dry clothes, Mommy snuggled her up in a blanket until she warmed up--she did not protest! After that, we grilled some hotdogs and continued to enjoy the sunshine until it began its late decent. :o)

Enjoy the pictures...do you think she was having fun?! Bless her heart, her Momma won't buy her a swimsuit that fits. LOL. The swim bottoms would not stay up. They kept sliding down. Hallie would stop, bend over, and pick them up. Too cute! She's in between sizes right now. The 18-24 month is way to small, but the 2T (in the bottoms--and this came as a set) is too big. It depends on the brand, too...and this is a brand where we still get 18-24 mth in pants and 2T in tops. Hopefully it'll fit better by summer.