She's 3 Years Old!!!

Happy Birthday Haylie!!!

Haylie teaching Maddie bad habits--Haylie is a finger sucker and here she is being a bad influence on Maddie while they play in the bed in the camper during the big rainstorm

More playing in the bed in the camper

Swinging with daddy at the campground (before the rain)

Haylie and Maddie Jo enjoying a cold one before the the big storm

It's hard to believe, but our Haylie is now 3 years old. We actually celebrated her birthday, which is May 30th, a week early over Memorial Day weekend. My sister Lisa was up from North Carolina that weekend, so we decided to have her party while she was here. Unfortunately, the party didn't go quite as planned...it turned out OK but definately not the way I had envisioned. We had taken our new camper down to Boonesboro Park to camp for the weekend. We had planned to have a cookout for her birthday on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We got balloons & streamers and decorated around the picnic table for the party. My dear friend from work Bobbi Jo and her family came down, along with my mom, 2 sisters, and my niece Julia. I had just put 16 hamburgers on the fire, when an absolutely torrential downpour/thunderstorm came up. It poured rain, with lots of thunder and lightening. I was trying to finish cooking the burgers with an umbrella, but as fast as the rain was coming down, the charcoal was drenched and the fire went out. Todd, Bobbi Jo's husband was wonderful and tried to help me, but we both got drenched in the process. We ended up taking the hamburgers off the grill and finished cooking them on the outdoor gas stove on the camper which was under the awning. However, there was soooo much rain that I was literally standing in about 5 inches of water while grilling. It was just like there was a small pond right out the door of the camper. Once they were finally done, we ended up--all 12 of us--in the camper eating and having cake and ice cream and presents. Needless to say it was close quarters, but we actually had fun. Bobbi Jo's little girl Maddie is just a few months younger than Haylie, and they had a blast playing together. A memorable birthday for sure. The above pictures were taken by Julia on her new camera, because silly mommy forgot the camera. I did get it all on video, but not on film, so thank you Julia for sharing your pictures.

Climbing into the big bouncy room

In ecstacy after coming out of the bouncy room
Climbing up the big slide
Getting ready for the big slide down
WHEEEEEEEE

The following Saturday was her actual birthday. We had decided just the 3 of us would spend the big day celebrating. We went out to lunch at Garden Cafe, which is always a great time. Then we had promised Haylie we would take her to Bounce U, which several people had recommended. We'd been telling her all day we were going to go bouncing, and she was really excited, even tho she really didn't know what it was all about. However, when we got there, were found out it is only open to private parties on Saturdays. I was so mad--I never even thought to call to find out, just assumed it would be open on the weekend. So, we had to punt because she just kept saying "lets go bounce". We decided we would take her to Shillito Park which was nearby. She had never been to this particular park, so we thought it would at least be someplace new, and she's never met a playground she didn't love. Lo and behold as we pulled into the park, they were having a little fair in the park and had 5-6 blow up rides including a bouncing room and big blow-up slide. She was really too little for the other things they had, but she had a blast on the 2 rides she could go on. She went on the slide probably 5-6 times--couldn't climb up the ladder by herself, but sure tried hard. She really had a hard time in the bouncy room cause she was the smallest kid in there and the big kids were jumping so hard, she couldn't really stand up...she was bouncing around on her rear end like a ping pong ball, but she loved every minute, and didn't want to get out when her turn was up. So even tho she didn't get to Bounce U, I think she had a good birthday and really had fun.

Easter Pictures

With Ju Ju
See Gramgram's pretty flowers

I think I'll just sit in the middle of the flowers!!!

Daddy's chasing me!!

Shut your mouth

With my duckie quaking whistle from the Easter Bunny

Look at all this loot the little bunny brought me

My sweet girl with her hat on (which only stayed on about 2 minutes)

Haylie and Julia

Sweet Julia is growing up to be such a beautiful young lady

With the bunny ears on

Swinging in GramGram's back yard is one of Haylie's all-time favorite things to do...

especially with her best bud Ju Ju

Haylie's 1st Easter Egg Hunt (all bundled up from the cold)

Dancing to the music with my new keyboard--that blur is her arms swinging!!

I know, I know I've been a bad blogger and haven't posted anything in ages. My family has been after me so I finally found time to sit down and do it. Things are going well--Haylie is growing by leaps and bounds. She is wearing 3T pants now for her long legs, even though around the waist she is still more a 18-24 month size. We are going to be changing to a new daycare next week, so hopefully all will go well. This place actually has preschool and is MUCH more structured which I think she definitely needs. They have some pretty strict rules, so hopefully they won't throw her out!! The 2 biggest challenges will be NO sippy cups, big girl glasses only. We have only been doing sippy cups at home and just started practicing with a glass-- she always spills it, so I know for awhile she'll be needing her clothes changed frequently (guess that's why they have you bring 3 extra changes of clothes!!!) Also, to be able to go into the 3 year old room she has to be completely potty trained. We are not quite there yet--she does fairly well with #1, but not so good with #2 at all. She will be 3 at the end of this month, so we will see. I've talked to them and discussed her situation and they are going to leave her in the "transitional 2's" for now. By my estimation she is still about 3-6 months delayed with speech and behavior. But boy, has she come a LONG way.

Anyway, I'm posting LOTS of pictures of Easter. We had a great time and meal at my mom's house and Haylie got to do her 1st Easter Egg Hunt with her cousin Julia...she loved it, even though it was really cold that day. She just kept wanting to go find more!! Sorry, they are all out of order, but being the wiz at the computer/blogger I am, when I posted them all in order, they showed up all out of order--oh, well, at least I finally put some on!!

We're So Proud of our Daddy

Putting flowers on Papaw's grave
With best friend cousin Julia

I LOVE playing with JuJu
Rolling in the grass

Sure wish Papaw could see these girls now!!

Rich Holl--famous author

At booksigning at Joseph-Beth Bookstore

Look at that line!!

Doesn't he look cute!!!

Daddy has written a book called "Wildcats in Turmoil" which was published last fall. It's doing pretty well, and he even had a book signing at Joseph-Beth bookstore (above). I've been meaning to post these pictures but kept forgetting. It's about the UK Wildcat basketball team last year with the new coach (who is now the old coach!!). It is also a great history of the Wildcat basketball program. Of course with the recent firing of Coach Gillespie, there is renewed interest in his book. I'm so proud of him--he wrote the entire book in about 8 months and then got it published, all the while also working his full-time job teaching history.

I've been remiss in posting and just realized it's been over a month. Not a lot new been going on. Rich and I did go on a weeklong cruise 2 weeks ago for his spring break. We had a great and relaxing week. We left the Haybug home with my mom, and although we really missed her, it was nice to get away.

Haylie's been sick the past week, with a wicked case of bronchitis. She had to miss 2 days of daycare due to fever and cough. My sweet mom took care of her for me. Speaking of daycare, I'm looking at other daycares. I'm not really pleased with where she is and have an appointment to look at another place on Monday. It's not that they have really done anything terrible, but just several little things that have made me uneasy. They also have no real structure--the kids just play and watch TV/Videos. I think Haylie would really benefit from more structure...I think her behavior has actually gotten worse since she started going there. Plus, she'll be old enough for preschool this fall and they have no preschool there, so I want to move her where she can get preschool and daycare at the same place.

The pictures above are the most recent I've taken (believe it or not, I did not take one single picture on the cruise--if Haylie isn't around, why bother--hah.) We drove out to my dad's gravesite on a really pretty Saturday a couple of weeks ago. Haylie and my neice Julia had a great time running up and down the hill. It is really a beautiful graveyard--he is at Camp Nelson military cemetary. Unfortuately, my dad never got to meet our sweet girl--he would have been so crazy about her!!

My Funny Valentine

Hope everyone had a great Valentines Day. I know I'm a little late but I had to post these adorable pictures of Haylie taken the day after Valentines for church. She looks so grown up in them and her adorable personality really comes through.

We had a really nice Valentines Day. My sweet hubby got me flowers, chocolate covered strawberries and a sweet card. He also took me out for a wonderful meal at a little place called Metropol in downtown Lexington. It was a fantastic meal, which for us was unusual. We have historically not had good Valentines meals--Rich always tries hard but for various reasons, seems like the meal part is frequently lacking, even though he always takes me to really nice places. Seems like even fancy/schmancy places try to make a big buck on the day, but the quality is usually pitiful. But not this year!!! We decided it was our best Valentines meal ever. Of course having our Haylie as our favorite Valentine ever made it an even nicer day. The whole thing was really made even better since my sweet mom babysat so we could have a nice quiet dinner alone without the previously mentioned 2 year old around.

We've Started Daycare!!!

Check out these hairdo's!!!

Well, we broke down and put Haylie in daycare the first of the year. I know it's much more traumatic for me that it is for her, and I hope we both are eventually going to make the transition to smooth sailing. It actually hasn't been that bad, but there have been a few bumps along the way. My dear sweet 76-year-old mother has been taking care of her for the last year. Of course with Haylie being your very active typical 2 year old terror, it was really wearing my mom out. I kept asking her if she wanted me to put her into daycare, and she just kept saying "no, I want to do it as long as I can". Well one Friday after a particularly crazy week, I asked her again and she said "Yes, I'm ready." While I really didn't want to do it, I also don't want to kill my sweet mother. I'm just soooo grateful she got one whole year staying at home with GramGram, who is the best Grandmother in the whole wide world.

Of course it's not as easy as you might think finding a good daycare. All of the "good" ones have long waiting lists, especially if the child is not potty trained (which Haylie is still not). Some had up to 2 year waits!! Two of my patients recommended this place to me where their children go, and luckily they had an opening after the first of the year. So we officially started on Jan 7th and only left her for a 1/2 day the first day. Of course she screams "Mommy, mommy" still everyday when I leave her, but I know she stops before I even get into my car. It seems that they take good care of her and are kind and caring with her. The one thing I hate about it is that they don't give any kind of report at the end of the day, like if she ate, slept, pooped, etc. When you ask, they say they don't know because they have a morning shift that leaves at 2, and its the afternoon shift there when we pick her up. They don't have any kind of written report, which evidently most places do have. I know for a fact she is not napping well, because she will not just lie down and easily slip into dream land. At home she cries for 2-3 minutes, then plays in her crib for about 1/2 hour and then finally falls asleep with her music on. She will nap for 2 1/2-3 hours at home, once she finally goes to sleep. At daycare, she has to lay on a little cot on the floor and only has from 12-2 to sleep. Most days she comes home so tired looking. At least we can get her to bed a lot earlier!! Anyway, we've also of course all been sick since she started. She actually got a sinus infection the first week she was there and missed that Friday. I put her on antibiotics for a week, and it came right back and now she's back on antibiotics because she had a probable pneumonia last week. Luckily, she is much better today. But now I've gotten a terrible cold, as has my sister, and mom. We're just waiting for daddy to get it--of course that will be the most tragic, as he just knows he is going to die everytime he gets a cold!!!

Speaking of Daddy, he actually did an amazing thing this past weekend. He kept Haylie overnight for almost 26 hours straight, so mommy could go out of town. My dear sister Lisa got my mom, my other sister Marcia, and I all tickets to see "Wicked" in Louisville on Saturday night. We had a wonderful weekend just us girls and of course the play was wonderful (it was only my 3rd time seeing it!!). We shopped and then ate at the Old Spaghetti Factory. Since the play wasn't over till 11:00 pm we spent the night at the Galt House, and then got home around 2:30. Rich watched Haylie the entire time and lived to tell about it. He actually had to change 3 poopie diapers, which is 1 more than he has changed the entire previous year!! To be honest, my niece Julia who is 12 also stayed with him and helped out a lot. But Daddy did live to tell about it, and so did Haylie with only minimal collateral damage. She did take all of her clothes off during her nap, including her diaper. (That's what she does quite often during that 30 minutes she is playing before she falls asleep I told you about earlier!!) She then proceeded to pee in the bed and then fall asleep. Daddy left her sleeping buck naked and then just wiped the sheet with a papertowel when he got her up. Luckily, she didn't poop everywhere!!

Anyway, I know this is a long post, but I haven't updated for a while. Above are some cute pictures of what they do with Haylie at daycare. She has come home 3 times now with her hair french braided or in cornrows. There is a cute little Hispanic girl who works there who says she does it while they are sitting watching TV. The first day it happened when I picked up Haylie, all of the little girls in her room had their hair done. It was adorable!!

One Year Ago Today...

One Year Ago

And Now ... See How I've Changed!!!

Haylie became ours forever!!! The previous day we had gone to court and the judge granted us permanent custody and legally changed her name from Nadzehda Skripova to Haylie Ann Holl. Then bright and early on January 15, 2008 we drove from Kemerovo, Russia to Novokuznetsk to the orphanage and picked up our girl and started our new lives as a forever family.

She has changed so much in the past year, she hardly looks like the same child. She was 18 months old and is now 2 1/2. She has gained 10 pounds and grown at least 6 inches (maybe more, it's been a few months since the last official measurement). She was wearing 9 month size clothing and now is up to either 2 or 3T. She couldn't walk by herself the day we picked her up, and now she never stops running. She didn't speak at all, although she constantly made interesting noises, and now she talks constantly. She was very serious and seldom smiled the first few weeks, and now she laughs constantly and is such a happy girlie. She is very loving and always wants "hugs, hugs", "kisses, kisses" and says "nuggle, nuggle" (snuggle) all the time. We are so blessed that God chose us to be her parents.

Today here in Kentucky it is very cold for us--it's about 11 degrees and is supposed to get down to -1 tonight. One year ago today deep in Siberia when we went to the orphanage it was -34 and there was 4 feet of snow. I tried to remember as I was freezing today walking into work that our weather is positively balmy compared to where I was last year and we really shouldn't complain, although of course we do.

The past year has absolutely flown by and I know we'll turn around and Haylie will be grown. I try to enjoy every minute of these precious days of her childhood as I know they too will fly by. Although I won't lie and say she has been a perfect child or everyday has been smooth, I can say her sweet smiles, hugs and kisses have been a dream come true. Happy "Gotcha Day" Haylie--we love you so much.

Haylie's First Christmas

She loves to turn her cart over and pour all the toy food in the floor

Check out all the goodies Santa brought!!
I LOVE my toy kitchen

Working hard to put together my new Clippo's

I hope everyone had a great holiday, even if I am a little late. We had a wonderful first Christmas with Haylie. She wasn't really sure what it was all about, but seemed to have a great time with it all. She loved tearing open the packages, and really loves playing with her new toys. She walked into the living room with all of Santa's gifts and had the greatest expression on her face and just said "Oh my!!". She got a new wagon, a toy kitchen and shopping cart, a tricycle, among MANY other things, including a whole box of new clothes from Aunt Lisa. My mom, both sisters, and niece Julia came and spent Christmas Eve and Christmas night at our house. It was a really nice holiday, and my sweet family put together all of her hard-to-assemble toys (especially the kitchen which literally had about 1000 small pieces that Lisa spent hours putting together). I didn't get a lot of good still pictures because I was too busy videotaping the whole thing. Someday, I'll figure out how to download videos to the blog. I couldn't help remembering last Christmas when we were soooo disappointed that we hadn't been able to go get Haylie before the holidays--she was certainly worth the wait and sure made the holiday special this year!

The Sunday after Christmas, we flew to Florida to visit Rich's parents. Haylie was great on the plane and it went as smoothly as it could have. It was only a short visit, but the weather was great and we got to take Haylie for her first trip to the beach. At first she was scared and said "All done" as soon as the first little wave came in, but then didn't want to get out. The water was a little chilly so we only stayed about a half hour. But she is still saying "ocean" and "big water" wanting to go back. She sure was a cute little beach bunny. She got to meet her Aunt Carrie and Uncle Doug from Hawaii for the first time, and thought "Ug Doug" as she called him hung the moon. He played with her for hours at a time and she just ate it up. Everyday since we got home, she still asks for Carrie and Ug Doug.

Me and my Daddy at the beach