Drama Queen

Hi my name is Hanley and I do NOT like the doctor. The second she came in the room and looked at me I started screaming. And screaming. And screaming. And screaming. And when she touched me, OMG! And then, then this horrible horrible doctor went and gave me two shots!! What was she thinking?! Doesn’t she know I’m a princess and princesses do NOT have to have shots? Don’t worry though, I think I screamed so loud and so much that she will never want me in her office again. The sucker wasn’t nearly enough to make this whole traumatic experience ever go away. I mean who does that? Gives shots and then tries to bribe the child with a sucker.

The doctor said that I only weigh 17 lbs, 14 oz so basically I’ve gained 13 lbs since I was born. Funny, I eat so much food now you think I’d weigh a lot more. It must be my height; I mean at 29 inches already surely I’m meant to be a basketball superstar.

My mom thought she’d be sweet and take my brothers and me to a buffet afterwards. Little was she aware me and Hudson had other plans. Destructive plans. While Hudson kept getting in trouble for kicking brother, crawling under the table, and trying to throw his food, I thought it would be fun to see how many drinks I could knock over before mom noticed. Once she noticed she went and got all upset so I had to make it clear it was not acceptable to tell me to knock it off. Again, princesses are not told what to do. Since Hudson kept up his attention deterrents I thought I’d cut mom a break and stick to putting grapes in her drink instead. What fun that was! We thought we were having tons of fun but then I started to notice Mom and Bubby’s eyes were criss-crossing and I think I even saw a vein pop out of her forehead! I guess we pushed it too far since she made us get in the stroller and leave. We didn’t even get to have dessert, how unfair is that?! Don’t worry I let her know how I felt about that all the way home.

*Mom’s note: The princess has another doctor’s appointment in 2 months. I think someone else may accompany her to that one.*

Han 14 Months

Oh my 14 months already is she!

What a beautiful little girl she is becoming although most of the times I still think of her as
my little baby. Not because she’s still an infant, just because she IS my
baby…my little girl. Her eye lashes are still amazingly long and dark and they
frame her beautiful blue eyes so well. Her smile has the ability to make my
heart jump….Especially when her three little teeth show through. And soon it
will be six new teeth as three more are fighting their way through.
She’s a stubborn one and she has a red headed temper! She’s not
walking yet even though she can take steps. I’ll get her to take steps and she
will and then she’ll decide she’s done. And she will REFUSE to take anymore.
What a silly girl. If she only knew how much easier it is to walk then crawl.
And talking, she can say “Ba” and “uh” like no one’s business and sometimes even
teases me with a “mamma” but that is it. I’ve been working really hard with her
trying to teach her words but when I say them she just looks at me, smiles, and
says, “ba”. Oh Hanley. The other day she did pick up the phone and start
“talking” in it. I’m sure soon enough she’ll out talk her brother. Lord help you
if you make her mad, she will let you know….and know….and know….and know.
I started to notice she likes to hoard things somewhat. She will
pick up as many of something as she can and hold on to them. She’ll also take
toys and hide them in cabinets or her play kitchen. She thinks it’s so much
fun. She can tackle the stairs up and down no problem. She also LOVES to play at the park. She will climb up to the slide, turn around, and go down on her belly feet first. She laughs the whole
time. She’ll swing all day if you let her and laughs and laughs.
What a fun little girl she has become. A few things I would like
her to work on is not crying almost all the time in the store and not not not
NOT throwing up in the car ALL THE TIME. But anyway like I said what a fun little girl she has become. I’m so thankful the Lord trusted me to be her mamma.

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

One year ago my beautiful baby girl came into my life. She had auburn red hair and bright blue eyes. After she was born I held my breath until her first cry. Oh what a beautiful cry. Who knew something so tiny could wrap herself around my finger and snuggle right up in my heart. Throughout her first year I’ve watched her grow, smile, laugh, crawl, stand up, and turn into this bright and fun one year old. We’ve fought eating and sleeping battles and some days I thought I was going to go crazy.

I couldn’t imagine her not being in my life. She brings me so much happiness and I am completely in love. I thank God often for her.
Happy first birthday my amazing little girl!

Christmas

Christmas was close to perfect for me this year. I got a last minute surprise of my Aunt and Uncle, as well as my cousin and her babies coming to my house. My mom and dad were there and my brother and his girlfriend came for Christmas dinner as well as Makayla. Christmas Eve Caleb and the babies hung out waiting impatiently for everyone to get there. I premade lots of food and finished wrapping the last of the presents. Once everyone got there, Huddie and Han played with my cousins babies. They played and played and equally tried to open the presents.

We put on a movie at the end of the night to calm everyone down but then Caleb
and Makayla spotted Santa’s sleigh outside and everyone got wound up. AND THEN Santa himself was lost on our street trying to find his way back to the sleigh. Caleb came running in the house when he spotted him so we took the little ones out. Emma went straight to him as if Santa was her favorite person. Hudson, not so much. He had to warm up to Santa. We invited him in for cookies and milk and he let us take a few pictures.

We put the movie back on and checked the Santa tracker. We

told the kids he was closer and he had already bi-passed 1,000 houses because
those children were not in bed. Caleb heard that and went straight to his bed.
I went in there and told him there was a little time and he was sleeping our
room so he could get back up but we really needed to work on getting all the
babies asleep. So we all went on doing our thing and I noticed Caleb and Hanley
were missing. Bless his little heart, he was up in her room with her, rocking
her in his arms saying, “Go to sleep Hanley, please go to sleep.” I think I
feel in love with him 100 times over at that moment. I took over to get her to
sleep so he could go get ready for bed.

And Santa did indeed come.

The next morning Hanley must have heard all the commotion and started the process
of waking up the entire house. We woke up, let the kids come down the stairs,
and they were the happiest children ever. Emma was a great helper helping
everyone open their presents. We all made out pretty good. I love watching the
kids open presents and see the excitement! After playing with all the presents it was dinner time.
There was so much delicious food!
About this time everyone had to leave so Dad,
Makayla, Caleb & I went to shoot his new gun. What fun!
We finished that evening out playing with all the toys and
enjoying each other’s company.
Like I said, close to perfect. I guess the only thing that could have made
it more perfect is if Hanley walked on Christmas…but I’ll take what I can get.

12/3/11-Caleb's Birthday

11 years ago I gave birth to a healthy 7 lbs, 8 ounce little boy. He was gorgeous and I remember thinking, "you're going to be amazing." And sure enough, 11 years later he is indeed amazing.

He wanted a roller skating party and that is what we did. They were in the rink doing tricks, skating backwards, playing all kinds of games. We had some yummy cake and opened presents. He made out with the Nerf guns and money. He was a happy child.

He never seems to lack when it comes to humorous faces.

And Huddie snuck a bit of frosting.

Afterwards he had a sleepover with a few friends.

We played lots of fun games.

I'd say he had a blast. I look back at each year and analyze how he's grown, what he's accomplished, and think wow he's a preteen.

And after each birthday I look forward to all of those things for the next year.

I'm so lucky to be his mom.

Happy Birthday Kiddo!

A little bit of everything

Caleb had a great soccer season. He is improving each year and had an awesome team. His team won 2nd place and won the good sportsmanship trophey. His favorite position in goalie and he plays defense too.

And this one is just for fun. Hudson made this cat at Build-a-Bear. He picked out everything and named him "Giants". Go figure :)

These are my two beautiful cousins. There are actually four of us but me and one of them can't seem to be at the same place at the same time. The last picture of us was when I was like what, 6 or 7. Anyway, just thought I'd share.

Halloween

So for Halloween I have to confess, I wasn't that creative. I reused Hudson's costumes. If you look back a few years in my blog you will see the monkey suit on him when he was four months old. Hanley is 10 months wearing this. He wore it for like 30 minutes and it's super cute so why not let her be a monkey too. I promise, and you can hold me to this, that she will not be a hamburger next year.

We decorated the house and tarped off the porch ready to scare kids. We didn't have a huge turnout which totally surprises me given where we live. But the ones that did show up got the beeheevies scared out of him.

Hanley didn't mind Halloween, she thought the feet on her costume were annoying but enjoyed it none the less.  My dad and I took the little ones Trick-or-Treating up and down our street. We passed one person in a costume and Hudson was not happy about it.
 

Since we weren't getting many kids, my parents watched our little ones, and I joined up with Caleb for Trick-or-Treating. We didn't make it too many blocks since he developed a tummy ache from eating all the candy with no dinner.

Overall it was lots of fun.

Look what she can do!

She crawled at nine months and is now pulling up at 10 months. Even getting a bit brave and going one-handed. That's my girl!

Cutest Thing Ever!

So Hudson loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Which, if any of you have watched, they have Toodles...the reliable mouse with all the tools.

Hudson was helping me clean out my car the other day. He dropped the keys in the backseat and couldn't get to them. He asked me how to get them and I said, "I don't know, what do you think?" He says, "I know....We'll use a Mousekatool! Oh Tooooooodllllllllessssss????"

See...cutest thing ever right?

An Overdue Update

Finally. Finally, could it really be? She eats! Hanley has been a finiky eater since she was about three months old. I quit nursing because she was such a pain to feed and she continued to be a pain. For about two weeks now she has ate like a normal baby. Thank goodness because it really stressed me out. Neither of the boys were like this. If there was food, they were there. She also sits up. She can’t get into a sitting position on her own as she doesn’t yet get on her knees when she’s on the ground (she’s trying!) but she’ll sit for a long time and play. She babbles and has learned to blow raspberries. She’s also a mamma’s girl.  Can you believe she’s 7 ½ months? I know I can’t.

Hudson. Oh that child. He is so so so cute! He wants to do everything the older kids or I is doing. He has a little lawnmower to mow the grass. He has a kitchen set to make coffee. He has tools so he can “screwdriver” everything, a scooter to ride like his brother, and a soccer ball for brother’s soccer practice too. He has no clue he’s only two. Also for about a month now he has been sleeping in a big boy bed…he crawled out of his crib one day and that was the end of that. He really surprised me….I have no faith in my child because I was terrified to have him be able to move about while I'm sleeping. He gets into EVERYTHING. Anyway, he’s been great and does exactly what he’s supposed to do. He’s going to be a fun one to raise, I’m eager to see what he ends up doing when he’s older.

For a while I’ve really struggled with Caleb. He’s a very strong willed child and it drives me insane. He constantly reminds me I have no flippin clue what I’m doing as a parent. At the end of some days I was left exhausted and crying because he would push so hard. He’s always been strong willed but in the last year it’s became more evident just how hard-headed he is. Anyway, the last couple months Caleb, as well as all of us parents, have worked really hard to work through this. Caleb is now back to his normal self that I knew was in there. Now he’s still hard headed but he has changed a lot and he has been pushed to change. I have missed him. I know that sounds funny, but I really have. I’m so thankful for these changes as I know he is. He is an amazing child, very smart and would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. While he doesn’t necessarily have a servant’s heart, he has a helping heart. He started soccer a couple weeks ago and is doing great! He realized he needs to up his cardio a bit as the field is HUGE but he’s taken to the challenge like it’s nothing. His skills have improved since last year and he is all about teamwork. I’m very proud of him. His first game is this Saturday and he’s excited. He’s also soaking up what’s left of his summer enjoying his friends and video games. School starts on the 29th and although he wants to see his friends, he doesn’t want homework. What kid does right?

Hanley Bug

Oh Hanley, I think you’re going to be my drama queen. At 7 months old you have already expressed to us that you want things your way and that you hold grudges. The problem is, I don’t have a flippin clue what your way is or what you want. You are a hard one for me to figure out. One day you like things one way and the next day you don’t. And what’s with this not eating thing? It’s getting worse and worse. Kid, you need food to grow…you’re too young for eating disorders. You look great as you are! The bottle really isn’t that bad. You didn’t like nursing so you really need to take your bottle. I get that you like cereal and baby food but you still need a bottle.
On the other hand, you are CUTE! I love love LOVE your big, round, blue eyes. Every time you see me you give me the biggest, “Hi Mom!” smile and you melt my heart over and over. It makes me smile when I lay you on the changing table, you take a big breath in and ‘talk’ to me as you make eye contact. I can’t wait to see what you’re going to look like (ok I can wait, just excited). You have red hair which really needs to start growing so I can put clips in it.

You are a rolling fool. I’m surprised you haven’t figured out how to roll to get to the things you want. Last night you almost army crawled and it made me so excited I clapped and made loud noise and you then were distracted by me. Oops. I have a feeling you’ll be up on your knees crawling in no time. You are trying to sit up but haven’t quite got the muscles for it. I see you being one to figure it all out suddenly and our house will never be the same. Although I don’t think you can do near as much damage as Hudson. And if you can, please don’t.

Hanley girl, I love you with all my heart and soul. I can’t believe how fast the first 7 months of your life went by. You have added so much to my life and you make me really happy.

Hudson's 2nd Birthday

He's two! How in the world did he get to be two? He talks so much and repeats everything. He is very inquisitive and smart. He gets frustrated easily like his mamma but he figures it out. And he likes to "fix" everything. If there's a screw driver around, he's trying to screw in something. If there's a hammer, he's banging on something. If there's a tape measure, he's measuring something.

I call him my little tornado, because, well that's what he is. He can destroy my house in less then 5 minutes. He's your typical two year old as well, lots of tantrums and expressing of frustration.

He might just be the cutest two year old ever! He's learned to say, "I love you" and "I love you too". How can I stay frustrated with a tornado when it does that?

His new thing is walking up and down the stairs counting them and he can get to about 7 or 8, usually skipping 6. Cute!

He melts my heart so much.