Happy Birthday Aileen!!!

Me and my girl


See my pretty Christmas dress!!

One of my all time favorite pictures of my girl

I love my white coat (she didn't want to take it off)

I wanted to wish Aileen, my best friend from high school, a very happy birthday. We've actually known each other since 1st grade, and even tho she lives in Florida and we don't get to see each other very often we can still just talk once or twice a year and it feels like we just talked yesterday. It's great to have that kind of friend and I just wanted her to know how much I appreciate her friendship and love. Today is a "milestone" birthday, although I won't say how many (especially since I'm 2 months older!!!) I don't know how we got this old--it still feels like it was only a couple of years ago we were at old Woodford County High School. Anyway, hope you had a GREAT day.

I'm also posting some new pictures of Haylie I took after church this past Sunday. She had on her Christmas dress I had our Christmas cards made in. She looked so cute in it. She won't say "Merry Christmas" only either "Merry" or "Christmas" but will not say both...same way with Santa Claus. She is saying lots of 2 word combos but for some reason, she doesn't want to put those combos together. We are going to go see Santa this weekend so that should be interesting. If we get a good picture with Santa, I'll post them soon.

New Pictures of My Girl

Pretty blue eyes
She refuses to pose for pictures but will say "cheese"

I LOVE my little table and chairs

She loves to sit on the counter while momma gets ready in the mornings

I love to dance!!!

I'm going to post a few new pictures of our girl since it's been awhile. Can't believe it's already been almost a year since we brought her home!!! You'll notice she is not wearing her glasses in any of these pictures. That is because she now absolutely refuses to leave them on for more than 5 minutes at a time. She has already totally broken one pair ripping them off--don't know what we are going to do about it. The eye doctor just says keep trying...oh well. We are looking forward to her first Christmas, even though she really has no clue what that means. She can say Santa Claus now and we are going to take her this weekend to meet the old guy in person. I'll post more later, but wanted to put some pictures up so you can see how big she is getting.

Professional Pictures

I took Haylie yesterday to get her picture made for Christmas Cards. This was a MUCH better experience than our previous try at professional pictures. Yesterday, a friend from church who has started her own photography business took Haylie's pictures. She has her sister play with the kids while she takes the pictures. She has a professional studio set up in her garage. While Haylie still wouldn't sit still and "pose" for pictures, it was much less painful. Stay tuned and I'll post the Christmas pictures when we get them.

We actually went to a Portrait Innovations in Lexington a month or so ago now. What an ORDEAL!!! I made an appointment for 1st thing in the morning thinking she would do better. However, she had other ideas and refused to pose or even smile, little alone sit still long enough to get any good pictures. Can't say I was too impressed with the photographer...she just stood there and said turn her this way, sit her over there, etc. Finally after about 45 minutes, she said "Why don't you just reschedule?" I had driven into Lexington on my day off just to get these pictures done and really didn't want to have to reschedule. So she said lets wait awhile and see if she will cooperate. So, after about an hour of waiting while they did other kids (who mostly were also not cooperating) she tried again. Still not great success, but did get some decent pictures. The big ordeal came next. They immediately put the pictures up on a big screen TV and you pick out your pictures right then. They then print them, and you have your pictures within 2 hours of getting done, which was nice. Problem was, they had taken 168 pictures that I had to narrow down, all the while Haylie was ripping and running around the studio. Literally, at one point she had her hand in the toilet while I was trying to look at pictures. So, long story short, I picked out 6 poses, several of which I would not have picked if I wasn't loosing my mind while trying to pick them out. Anyway, see for yourself. They give you the disc with all the pictures on it (well, not exactly GIVE--of course it's included in the "package") so I'm posting some of my favorites.

Happy Halloween

Gram Gram helping me get ready
Ready to Trick-or-Treat

Aren't I cute???

Check out these antennae

Trick-or Treating--What are you putting in my bucket??
Dancing with Gabbie (aka Dee Dee Doodlebop)

Riding with Gabbie in the wagon (My favorite thing about the evening)Me and my scarecrow

Haylie had a big time trick-or-treating on her 1st Halloween. She went as a bumble bee and was the most adorable bee ever. A dear friend of mine lent me the costume that was her daughters way back when. We went over to Tanya's, my friend from work to go trick-or-treating with her daughter Gabbie who is 3. Gabbie was a champion trick-or-treater. However, Haylie wasn't really sure about the whole thing. Don't get me wrong, she had a blast, but she really didn't get the whole trick or treat thing. She just wanted to push the wagon and didn't really want to go up to people's porch. I had to drag her (literally at times) up to each door and usually she just stood there, or in several cases, just sat down on the stoop. So we just went around the cul-de-sac because by then she had had about enough of the whole thing. We then went to my friends Mark and Joy's house who were having a bunch of people over for chili and trick-or-treat. Their kids are a lot older and were out with a whole bunch of kiddos. So, we just visited with our friends for while and then headed home. She was surprisingly good the entire night, but I think I probably had an even better time than she did.

It's The Great Pumpkin!!

Very focused on the job at hand

Modeling for the jack-o-lantern face

Eating the pumpkin guts--yum yum


The finished product

That's pumpkin guts all over my face

This is FUN!!!!!
See my Halloween Outfit

It is the GREAT pumpkin
My cutie girl

Playing my piano

We are gearing up for Haylie's first Halloween. On Monday, we carved her a jack-o-lantern. I must admit, I hadn't done one in probably 20 years and I'd forgotten how much work it is. My mom told me that Haylie wouldn't give a hoot about doing it, since her attention span isn't usually very long. But surprisingly, she LOVED it and stuck in there the entire time I was cleaning out the guts. Admittedly, she didn't really get into the whole carving thing, but it was so much fun watching her. She kept trying to eat the pumpkin innards and did get some in her mouth and swallowed it before I could snatch it back out. Luckily raw pumpkin and seeds didn't give her a bellyache. The other pictures above are what she wore to church tonight. My mom had bought this outfit cheap last year after Halloween--before we even had Haylie home. She looked like a little doll!!! Stay tuned and I'll post some pictures of her costume and the whole trick-or-treating event.

NOT a Kodak Moment!!

What is this thing?
Isn't this fun?
At least Daddy is having a good time
With Daddy and Gramgram in the apple orchard
I DO love apples
Don't I look happy???
Running thru the flowers and pumpkins

We took Haylie to Boyd's Orchard in Versailles last weekend. I kept seeing other bloggers post adorable pictures of their little kiddos posing so sweetly in the pumpkin patch and couldn't wait to take Haylie. Rich and I have always really enjoyed going out every fall to pick apples and get fresh cider, and last year we talked about how Haylie would be along next year and we couldn't wait to bring her. However, she was not so excited. She began screaming as soon as I parked the car, and continued almost nonstop the entire time we were there. We first tried to eat in the little restarant. Haylie wouldn't have much to do with anything we tried to feed her. We then proceeded out to the orchard to pick apples. We had her in the stroller which she usually never minds and in fact loves riding when we go on walks. This day however, she was throwing a fit to get out. On the way to the apples, we passed the pumpkin patch and got her out to let her roam thru the patch. She just took off running and wasn't impressed with the pumpkins at all, and certainly wouldn't pose for any pictures. So much for our Kodak moment!! When we went on out to the apple trees, she again started crying like she was being tortured. She did calm down a bit to eat an apple which she did love. The pictures above are the best I could get. Guess we'll have to wait till next year to try and get the perfect pictures--maybe she'll be more cooperative.

Family Birthday Weekend

My Sweet Momma
Haylie and Aunt Lisa at the Garden Cafe
Mommy and Haylie at lunch
Bright Sunlight!!
Helping GramGram open presents
Playing with cousin Julia (JuJu)

We had a great weekend this past weekend as my entire immediate family got together to celebrate my mother's and my birthdays. My mom (and dad who died 3 years ago) birthdays are both October 10 and mine is October 11, so we all got together all weekend. I took off work Friday and my sister Lisa came up from Knoxville. Mom, me & Haylie, Lisa, & my other sister Marcia (who also has an October birthday) all went out for a girlie lunch at the Garden Cafe at Flag Fork Herb Farm. They send you a card for a free lunch in the month of your birthday, so 3 of us ate for free!! It is really a girlie kind of place and Haylie fit right in. She was so good and only squealed like a banshee a couple of times--overall she was a really good little girl. After lunch we all drove to Louisville to shop at Costco. We were going to go some other places but ran out of time which was OK--we are all Costco junkies and just hope and pray they build one in Lexington someday!! We then celebrated my mom's 76th birthday with a icecream cake from DQ--yum. Haylie's present to my mom is that she FINALLY started calling her something--we have been working with her trying to get her to say "Grandma" or "Grammy" but she wouldn't ever really call her anything except an occasional "mama". But just in the last week she has started consistantly calling her "GramGram" which sounds sooooo cute.

Then Saturday was my big day--yeehah. I won't say how old I turned, only that I can't believe I'm as old as I am--how did that happen. I must be honest and say I have been asked several times if Haylie is my grandchild--ouch!! I won't complain (even though I have) about my age because it sure beats the alternative!! Rich and I went to the UK vs S. Carolina football game and even though we lost (boo!!) we had a really nice day. We tailgated with our friends before and it was a gorgeous October day. Then after the game we went back to my mom's house for dinner. She always makes our favorite meal for our birthday and I always request her homemade pizza--it's the best. A very nice weekend and so nice to spend time with my family. We all commented on how this time last year we still didn't have Haylie. We had been for our first visit to meet her but she still wasn't home. So, even though I turned another year older, it's amazing to think that this was my first birthday as a mother--what a difference a year makes!! And she is definately the best present I've ever gotten. Thank you God!!

First Big BooBoo

See my boo boo
She keeps patting her chin saying "BooBooBooBooBoo"
Check out my new Bouncing Zebra
This is a blast!!!

Well, Haylie fell and got her first big boo boo. She took a header going down Grandma's concrete steps and landed on her chin. Then 2 days later, she was running thru mom's house and tripped and slid on her chin again and got a rug burn right on top of her previous boo boo ripping the scab off. So she's now sporting a nasty red chin. The only surprising thing is that is as much as she is running/climbing/running/jumping...etc. she hasn't done it sooner or worse. And although she did cry at the time, it doesn't seem to bother her much. Just hope it doesn't leave a scar!!