Haley's First Year Book

I finished up Haley's baby book/first year book just before her birthday. Below is a link to look at it all digitally. I just love how it turned out and will enjoy it for many years. One day I will give it to her to keep.

A lot of time and effort went into this book but I truly enjoyed making it. It's just a hobby to me and I love to organize memories and photos and find the perfect elements and paper to go with them. I made some of the layouts from my scrapbook supplies and many of them I just used the stock layouts that Shutterfly offers in their book making program. They have some very nice ones.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Click here to create your own Shutterfly photo book.

August Goals!

Nothing earth-shattering here but I have been working on my August Goals all this month. So far here is what they are and what I have checked off. I think having monthly goals works better than doing one big goal/resolution for the whole year. So far I have kept myself somewhat accountable, but like I said, these are just personal goals for me that probably no one else would think meant much.

1. Celebrate Haley's First birthday with her special party. DONE and it was a success!

2. Help Jonah have a great first day of preschool. DONE! He loves school!

3. Continue to make better eating choices. This one is still a work in progress and I don't think I am doing very well on this one considering we ate at Jersey Mike's subs and had pizza for supper yesterday. :( I am taking my It Works! Ultimate Thermofit each day and I haven't gained a ton but I haven't lost either. Thinking of restarting the Flat Belly Diet next week.

4. Read one chapter of Proverbs a day. I am all caught up on this and enjoying it immensely. Trying to savor the Word!

5. Read one book. I accomplished this thanks to our awesome public library. I read The Women of Duck Commander: Surprising Insights from the Women Behind the Beards About What Makes This Family Work. I really enjoyed this book and loved learning more about these Godly women. I read the book really fast and couldn't put it down. These women are definitely ones you cannot judge by their cover. I am actually hoping to read a few more books and listen to a couple while I work.

6. Stay off-line and unplugged in evenings and on weekends. I am doing so-so on this one. It's hard, I"m not going to lie! I am working on it and trying to only plug-in if both kids are asleep.

7. Take more pictures of daily life. This one is hard for me too but I'm trying to do better. My phone camera is horrid but I am going to try to take more pictures with it. Hopefully I can upgrade to a nicer phone soon!

Jonah's First Day of Preschool!

Last Thursday was Jonah's first day of preschool! I think Daddy and I were more excited about than he was. He didn't seem nervous at all about it and seemed very excited and ready to go. We packed his lunch and we both took him for his first day. When we got to his classroom door (a little early) he was ready to go inside but we had him wait until the teacher was ready. We took him to hang up his backpack and put his lunch box away and then we said our goodbyes and he gave us each a big hug and then he was good to go! He walked in his classroom and found his seat and was just fine.

We are so proud of what a big boy he has been about school and we know he was ready for it. Here are some pictures from the first day.

He doesn't look excited in this picture but it was just the camera delay. He was very excited and seemed cool as a cucumber. This was taken in one of the hallways. I just love him with that backpack on!!

Very blurry but shows more of the excitement!

He was over taking pictures by the time we go to his classroom door so we took one of his cool Dusty backpack. The theme of his classroom is Frogs. So as long as he can remember frogs he can find his room....should he ever need to.

This was taken right before we left (from the doorway). He looks so little and sweet! I really like both of his teachers and think he will have a great year!

When I came back to pick him up at 2:00 I snapped this picture. So, so proud!! His teacher said he only had 2 little upsets and one was just because he tripped and fell. I will take it!! She said he got over both of them very quickly.

A little background on the preschool he is going to. It's about 40 minutes from our house which seems crazy to many, I'm sure, that we would drive him there but the only other option in our small, rurual county is full PreK through the school system. He would have to go 5 days a week from 8-3 just like regular school. I know a lot of people that choose that route and their kids do great but we just weren't ready for him to be in a full-on school setting just yet. Mainly because his birthday falls so late in the year and he would be one of the youngest kids in the entire school. Also, we wanted his first experience to be Christian-based and this preschool definitely is. It's sponsored by the largest church in the next county over from us. So he is getting the full feel of big school (lots of kids and structured learning) without all the bad stuff (we all know there is good and bad in the public school system). We feel that the Lord really placed this option in our path and it was something we could afford to do right now. Anyways....sorry for all the explanations but it also will help me when I look back one day.

Haley Turns One!

We celebrated our Haley Rose turning ONE on August 9th. We had a little Pink Lemonade party at my parent's house. My Mom and I took to calling Haley our little sunshine girl when she started really smiling around 4 months old. When I started to think about her first birthday the thought of summer, sunshine and lemonade just popped into my head. I didn't see a party or anything in that theme before I thought about it. Then I jumped on Pinterest and my head about exploded....lots of people had already thought of that theme! LOL

So I got lots of ideas from Pinterest and commissioned my Mom to warm up her Cricut and make all the party decorations. We had fun with it but we mainly wanted it to be a special day celebrating our little miss priss with friends and family. It was just that and we had a great day and Haley was in a perfect mood for her party. Without further ado, here are the pictures from her big day!

My Mom made the best strawberry lemonade! It was more like punch, it was so sweet. We drank all of it!

 

I got this idea from Pinterest and my Dad helped and cut the wood and assembled it. I painted it. I also used in some of Haley's recent professional portraits.

Favors were lemonade mixes and bubbles for the kids.

 More of the decorations on the tables. My Mom did all of them! So cute!
 

I bought this old 6-pane window and knew I wanted to incorporate Haley's monthly pictures in it. My Mom took my pictures and window and turned it into this awesomeness!

Haley's adorable and delicious smash cake! It did not have the crack in it when the lady delivered it. I think somebody's little finger got into it (cough, cough Jonah). LOL

Here is out little sunshine girl right after she woke from her afternoon nap. She didn't know what to think about all these people here at her Nana's house.

We tried to get a family picture real quick before we did the cake but Jonah was not in the "mood" to be in a picture. Oh well at least we got one with the birthday girl.

Haley loved it when we sang her Happy Birthday!

Miss Priss didn't do much damage to her cake. She didn't know what to think of it....oh but she will one day. So brother helped her out.

Haley got lots of fun goodies to play with this whole next year and some cute clothes too. This a rocking chair that my in-laws gave her. It's a vintage one that will be worth a lot of money one day. But we intend to keep it for Haley to do what she wants with it one day. 

Our sweet baby is growing up on us already even though we've told her many times to just stay little. We love Haley so much and can't wait to watch how she grows and learns!!

Haley is 12 Months Old!

Our sweet baby girl is 1 whole year old! Gosh! I don't know where this last year has gone but boy has it been a fun adventure! We are preparing to celebrate our sweetie pie this weekend with a Pink Lemonade theme birthday party. She is our little Miss Sunshine!

Milestones this past month:

-Scooting on her bottom everywhere! She is into it all!
-Drinking and holding her sippy cup
-Sleeping ALL night long!
-Talking and jabbering away
-Has 6 teeth and cutting a couple more right now

Sleeping:

As I mentioned above, Haley has finally started to consistently sleep all night long. (I hope I didn't just jinx it) She goes down around 8:30 and wakes anywhere from 6-7 each morning. She still takes 2 solid naps a day of 1-2 hours each. She can go longer and longer now between naps so that is good. Now we can actually go more places in between naps. We could not have asked for a better sleeper than our Hay Hay! Just proof that God hears all prayers (because oh yes I did pray for a better sleeper) and He answers them.




Eating:

Still doing baby food and puff snacks and drinking water with food. She still takes 7 ounces every 4-5 hours. She eats lunch and dinner baby food but still doesn't eat a whole lot of quantity. She just doesn't seem to want a lot of food like some babies. She is health and growing so we can't complain. I know we will get to the bigger pieces of food in time but I am not going to rush it and go off of her. She is paying more attention when we eat so I know she will get there soon.




Playing:

INTO EVERYTHING! We have officially baby-proofed the main floor (the basement is still iffy but we don't go down there much) We have to close doors and put up gates now. She is so fast with scooting and she picks up every tiny piece of anything she sees on the floor. So sweeping and vacuuming feels like all I do. She loves her toys though and has started to love touch and feel books too. They keep her entertained a lot when I need to sit and hold her (like at church) and keeps her quiet. She still chews on pretty much anything she gets her hands on. I will be glad when that phase is over! She loves for us to pretend chase her and she takes off scooting. She loves to swing outside in the baby swing and loves to be pushed around in her stroller.




We are thankful to the good Lord that she has remained healthy during her whole first year and that she is growing so beautifully. I am very biased but I think she is just the prettiest baby girl! People tell us that she is so pretty all the time but we know she is just fearfully and wonderfully made. I am so nostalgic here lately with Jonah just turning 4 and now Haley is 1. I just wish that time could stand still but it cannot. We just pray we are teaching them both how to grow in the Lord and in wisdom and knowledge that they can use throughout their lives.

Weekend Fun

We haven't done anything very productive or out of the ordinary. We have just hung out and played and soaked up just being together and not having to run here and there and everywhere. Also, this is the tax free weekend for Tennessee so since we don't need anything from the stores or town, we decided to lay low. I am sure the stores have been crazy!

Here is most of our Saturday in pictures. I took advantage of the cool temps and snapped some pictures of the kids just enjoying the day.

"Mama take my picture."

"Take a picture of Windlifter's face."

My world!

Chewing, chewing, chewing!

Jonah loves his bike a.k.a. his motorcycle. 

Love that lop-sided grin!

Them feet are into what ever she is doing. Haha!

If it has a tag...she will find it.

Some of the decent looking roses on my rose bush. 

Mid holler

These are the days!!!