Outside Fun!

We've had a lot of rain lately - maybe not a lot for most places - but a lot for the "desert" we live in. Seems like it's rained every day for over a week now and it's been hard to let the kids go outside for too long to play when the storm rolls in a couple of times a day. Yesterday it was nice almost all day (it did rain later in the evening) and the kids had a blast playing with each other. This year has been really fun since as Hailey gets older, the two of them are able to play more and more things together.

Zach is getting really excited to play baseball this summer (he is signed up to play on a community rec team), so he continually wants to play catch or hit the baseball. Somehow, he talked Hailey into being a pitcher and then hitting, so the two of them played baseball for quite a while.


Obviously Hailey hasn't been hit by a line drive yet, because she's standing way too close! But in order for her to get the ball to him, they have to be at such a small distance apart.


I have warned Zach to be careful not to hit her, but he gets excited sometimes and I just know one of these times she's going to really get nailed.

Hailey even batted a few times and hit the ball quite well - I didn't get any pictures since the batteries in my camera ran out and by the time I got them changed, they had moved onto something else. But they both did great and are extremely coordinated for their ages. It's fun to watch them play together - they are so cute!



Our little baseball players, complete with their baseball hats!





After they played baseball for a while, they decided it was time to head back to swinging. Anyone who knows our kids knows how much they LOVE to swing! They could set in a swing for hours if someone was willing to push them. It was nice when at the beginning of the summer Zach figured out how to pump his legs. Of course that created issues because he could now swing for a long time and Hailey would only last as long as you were willing to push her. Well, needless to say that after a week or two of having to be content with a quick push from Mom and Dad, then having to sit on the swing or find something else to do, she figured out how to pump her own legs and boy was that a good day for us! Now she can sit on the swing and keep herself going just as long as she wants to.


It's fun to look out there and watch them swing and swing and swing.


The two of them are so funny - they love it when they end up swinging at exactly the same time and they are always giggling.

I can't believe how big the two of them are getting.



They are learning to do so much by themselves and although it's relieving to not have to be right with the every second, it's a bit sad to realize that they are needing you less and less as they grow.

She's been Whacked!

No, not that kind of whacked - too many action/adventure shows for you (just kidding)!

The kind of whacking I'm talking about has to do with hair. I've been talking about cutting Hailey's hair for a couple of months now. Honestly, I don't think anyone really thought I was serious - I wasn't even sure myself. She has the most beautiful straight blondish-brown hair and I've loved how soft and beautiful it is. I always thought I wanted a little girl with curly hair like mine, but I decided after she was born that the straight, soft hair is just as beautiful.

Well, last week I finally took the big plunge and dialed up a neighbor that cuts hair. She also happens to have been Hailey's nursery teacher when she was in nursery, so I thought Hailey would behave better with her than anyone else. I have been cutting the boys' hair for the past 5 or 6 years, but when it comes to something as dramatic as this, I just didn't think I had the self confidence or skill to get it done right. So off we headed to Sis. Curtis' house for the big event.

Hailey was so good - in fact, a little too good since she wasn't her normal, wiggly, energetic self. That was definitely a good thing when it came to cutting her hair. She sat on my lap since she was a little bit nervous, but she held so still and even got to wear a fun penguin cape to keep her clothes clean.

After she was done, I couldn't believe how cute she looked - it turned out even better than I had hoped. The new haircut really frames out her face and makes her big eyes just pop right off her face.

Before the Haircut


(This is the only close up picture I have of her that's handy - it's not a great one, but give you a good idea of how it looked before - her hair was almost half way down her back in length.)

And After





(She's sporting the big red flower barrette that Sis Curtis gave her for doing so good during her haircut. Cute isn't it?)

I have to admit that after the first snip of the scissors, I panicked slightly and wondered if I had just made a big mistake, but not too long after I realized that it was definitely not a mistake. In fact, I'm thinking I may keep it this short for quite some time, it's so cute! For those of you who know our little sassy, energetic, cute little Hailey, you can see that the haircut is a perfect fit for her little personality. Yeah, I think we'll keep it this length for a while.

Wednesday Play Date Fun

My sister and I have been getting together at my Mom's house once a week the past little while to have a play date with the kids. Yesterday, my other sister was able to join us now that she's done teaching for the school year. We had a blast playing outside. It was a bit hot, so after a bit, Nana decided to make the kids a tent with blankets over the clothesline. After she got that built and gave them all towels to lay on, they had a blast in their own little tent. Here they all are laying on their towels and peeking out from under the walls of their tent.



We tried to get them all to lay down, hoping that maybe they'd all take a small nap. But that didn't work, instead they decided to use their towels as capes and fly around the yard as "Super Bunny." Don't ask me where that came from, but it was cute none-the-less. After a while, the towels moved to the tops of their heads and we were able to snap another quick picture.



It was such a fun day and I'm glad at least someone remembered to bring their camera, since I didn't remember to bring mine, and email me the pictures so that I could post them.

We're so glad that Kylie's now going to be able to get together with us each week and Michelle, we missed you and hope you are feeling better!

Crazy Kids!

There are a few pictures I have that I haven't blogged about, so I thought I'd put them in one post.

This is from a few weeks ago when Zach decided to take on the playground - needless to say the playground won. We had taken the kids to the park to let them play and have fun. I wasn't watching at that exact second, but from what I can piece together, Zach tried to go across some part of the playground when he slipped and fell, hitting his face on the metal. He cried pretty hard and it even bled for a few minutes, but after he settled down, he was off playing and running around.



This picture was even taken a few days after when all the bruising finally hit. We're pretty lucky that it wasn't directly on the eye or I think we would have really been in trouble. He hit hard enough to have a goose egg right there and even now (2 weeks later), it's still a bit tender.

As if that wasn't enough, the next day, Hailey decided that he needed a few scratches on his face to balance out the black eye. So while they were fighting, she got mad and reached up to scratch him.



The most noticeable scratch just happened to be right on his nose, but there were quite a few little scrapes on his other cheek.

And as if that wasn't enough, the day after the scratches, Zach was running around the playground at school, fell, and twisted his ankle. I don't have any pictures of that, but he walked around with a limp for about 4 or 5 days.

As you can tell, it was a pretty crazy couple of days and everywhere we went, I could tell people were giving me the evil eye as if I was somehow beating up my child. A few people at church even teased me about it. Ah kids, sometimes they are just so fun!

Since I've posted so much about Zach lately, I figured I'd better do a little bit about Hailey (at least something that doesn't make her sound like she's an extremely mean sister). The other day she was up pretty early, so she was pretty tired come late afternoon. She was sitting with me on the couch, drinking her milk, and the next thing I know, she'd fallen asleep. Now that doesn't sound too funny or strange, but when you understand that she actually fell asleep with the sippy cup in her mouth, then you might understand how funny it was.




At the rate that she drinks those sippy cups, she must have been really tired to fall asleep mid-slurp. Of course we had to wake her right up, but not until after I'd taken a few pictures.

We sure have some crazy kids, but no matter how crazy they are, we sure do love them!

Kindergarten Graduation

Well, my little boy has grown up and is now a Kindergarten Graduate! (I know I keep posting about how time has flown by and how I can't believe how big he's gotten, but I have to say it again - WHERE IN THE WORLD DID THE LAST 6 YEARS GO?) Yesterday was his kindergarten graduation and it was so darn cute! We loved going and seeing him sing his songs and get his little kindergarten diploma. Here are a ton of pictures (mostly because I'm having a hard time deciding which ones to put on here!):



What a good looking bunch of kids


Here's our cute boy

Here he is singing

Getting his diploma


Here he is with his diploma


Look at all the people that came to see him!


We were so proud of our big boy!


So were his Nana and Papa


And here he is with his wonderful teacher Mrs. Paxman


I couldn't help putting a little video clip on here of him singing a song:

(Sorry for the blurriness, I was a couple rows back and had to take the video in between the people sitting in front of me and their movement kept throwing the focus off.)

What a great graduation! They were all so cute and we loved the whole program.

Congratulations Zach, Dad and I are so proud of you! You are such a special boy and we love you very much!

We Love Uncle Taylor!

One of the most exciting times for the kids is when Taylor stays with us. He stayed with us this weekend and the kids loved every minute of it. They just love playing with him, jumping all over him, and even trying on his shoes! Hailey was funny trying to walk around in those, I think it took her about 5 minutes to walk 20 feet because she was so unbalanced - it was so cute!





This is all 3 of them on Sunday morning right before church - don't they all look nice?

They have such a great time whenever he's able to stay a night or two with us and cry when he leaves. He's so great with the kids and always takes the time to do whatever they want him too and he never complains. Whether it's being a Taylor-gym (otherwise known as a jungle-gym) or playing endless hours of XBOX, the kids just can't seem to get enough.

WE LOVE YOU UNCLE TAY!

P.S. Your Jimmy Baboo!

Distinguished Dragon

On Friday Zach came home with a big smile and showed us his Distinguished Dragon Pin that he had received that day. Every year his elementary school gives these pins away to the kids who fulfill a list of grade specific requirements. These requirements are basically the skills they need to pass that grade and move on to the next plus some. We were lucky that Zach had pretty much all of them done by they time they sent the paper home mid year. We worked on the last few and had them passed off in plenty of time. He was so proud of his accomplishments! We're proud of him and had to get a few pictures of him wearing his pin!




We're also extremely happy about the teacher he had this year. Mrs. Paxman has really been a great teacher. In fact, all of her students earned Distinguished Dragon Awards this year.

I can't believe my little boy is growing up so fast. First riding his bike without training wheels, then loosing his first tooth, and now almost being done with kindergarten. He continually reminds me that he's going into 1st grade next year and will be in school all day. That's something that I'm not quite ready to talk about yet, I'd rather wait the 3 or so more months before I have to accept that fact. But regardless of how much he's growing (even though it's way too fast) his Dad and I are extremely proud of him and we love him very much!