Happy Birthday Halli!!

Five years ago today, my world changed forever. Halli made me a mom, and today we celebrated her fifth birthday. I can't believe I have a five year old. I still feel so immature and young in so many ways, how can I possibly have a five year old? Well, we had to do a little celebrating for all of us making it this far with no major incidences!

It all started last night as I decorated the house and Kevin blew up a bunch of balloons to fill her room with. She woke up to a decked out house with streamers and balloons everywhere as well as a bedroom filled with balloons.

Since she was going to be at school all day I wanted to make the time at home feel special to her, and I think it did. Then, to make it even better, Peyton, Lexie and I joined her for lunch at school! She was so excited, I think she was most excited to be able to get the school lunch, which, like all cafeteria food was not so good, but she thought it was cool anyway. I had bought cupcakes from the cafeteria for her class,which they were supposed to pass out during lunch but forgot to do. So, I was able to join them all back in the classroom for some yummy cafeteria cupcakes. They sang to Halli again and chowed down!

For dinner we headed to the always tasty burger king for dinner, Halli's choice of course.:) Following that it was back to our house for cake and ice cream with cousins and a couple friends, and too many presents! She felt like a princess today and really enjoyed having all the attention on her.

Halli has been such a joy in my life, she will always be the little girl that made me a mom. It seems like such a short time ago that I was cradling her in my arms and staring at her perfect baby face. You always hear people say how fast the time goes, but when you're in the middle of it you just can't see. I know we still have a long way to go still, but I have truly enjoyed watching this little girl grow and I can't wait to see just what she'll become!

Halli in the cafeteria being the princess she is!

Halli and Peyton waiting to be dismissed for class

The class singing to the birthday girl.

Halli and her princess cake

Singing Happy birthday!

Sean, this one's for you!

2 months

Lexie just had her 2 month check-up and all went well. She's doing great and growing fast. She was 12lbs 7oz today which is the 90th percentile for weight and she was 22.3/4 inches long which is 50-75th percentile.

They gave her 5 shots and one oral immunization....that seems like SO many for such a little girl! She handled it as well as a baby could and really didn't cry for too long! Plus, the past two nights she's only been waking up once, so I'm really enjoying a little extra sleep.

She wore this dang cute outfit that Stacy and Allie got her, and I just had to take pictures, she looks like a doll in her cute summer clothes! Thanks girls!

Kindergarten

Today was the big day, our little girl headed off to kindergarten! She was a little uninterested this morning. Not that she didn't want to go, just that she didn't seem to care that she was going. She was talking about disneyland this morning, and then, as Kevin and I walked her into school, she asked why she had to go...this all made it very easy for me though. She wasn't nervous and neither was I! She looked beautiful and ready for school! When I picked her up, one of the first things she asked was why they went to school for so long, 8:15-3:15 is a very long day for these little kids, I hope she adjusts okay. I think she was a little overwhelmed when I told her that every day daddy goes to work, she goes to school. She has a longer road ahead of her than she even knows, Good luck sweetie!

Last night was a little more interesting, Kevin was ready to give her a blessing and when we brought it up, she acted scared and ran away and said she didn't want one. We never could convincer her of it, and she left for school this morning without one. I was a little more teary eyed last night because of this, but it did give me a good opportunity to teach our kids. So tonight after dinner we did an FHE on it, and explained things to her a little better and this time, she was fully willing to cooperate and I think it made a difference in how she felt after the blessing, rather than having us force her to do it. In many ways having a stubborn child is kinda obnoxious, but it teaches me patience, which I need, and I know that she won't easily be forced into doing things that she doesn't agree with. (even if its as small has curling her hair, which she has been known to then get wet so the curl falls out!) I love this sweet girl and hope she will always know it!

On another note, we have officially made it through the first two months with Lexie here! she is two months today and doing great! She loves to be held, which is fun at home, but pushing a grocery cart around with one arm, while I'm holding her, and yelling at the other two to stay by me is getting a little old. Hopefully she'll get used to the carseat soon! She is beautiful and is starting to babble more everyday! I can't believe how fast the time goes by!

Mrs. Rosemeyer

This morning we had meet the teacher at Halli's school, and Mrs. Rosemeyer is going to be her kindergarten teacher. Halli didn't seem to nervous, I asker her if she was and she just said she was excited. The whole way to the school she told me she was going to be a little shy at first, and if she forgot the teachers name she would be shy again, but not after that:) While we were in the class we had to write how the kids were going to get home from school, whether it was the bus, parent pick-up, or daycare pick-up. I told Halli what I was doing when she asked, and she told me she had never rode the bus before, and she really wants to. Unfortunately for her, we're doing parent pick-up, at least for the first little while. But her teacher seems to be very nice, and Halli was a little shy when she met her, just like she said she would be.

I really don't know how I feel about my little girl setting out into this whole new world. I'm glad that she'll have something going on during the day, since she needs it, and I really haven't been too great at providing that lately. But on the flip side, she's my little girl, and I'm not going to be there for her all the time anymore. I wonder if these teachers really know how much faith and trust we have to give them to allow our children to spend the majority of their days with utter strangers.

I remember thinking that kindergarten seemed like it was so far away, and now here we are, Halli's last weekend before becoming a true big girl. We're going to miss having her here at home during the day and I just hope this will be a wonderful experience for her. Kiss your babies moms, the time flies way too fast, and soon they won't be babies anymore!

Smiling and learning something new

Life around here is slowly getting back to normal, for the past two days with all the rain, we were lucky to have Kevin home! We love when he gets to hang out with us. I was able to finally go finish getting everything I needed for Halli to start school, and I didn't have three girls in tow, it was wonderful! On to the few little things that have been happening around her...

Lexie has started smiling. She was doing it a few weeks ago, but I finally got some good pictures of it. She is such a mix of her sisters, I love being able to look at them all and see them in each other. Her sisters love her, and everytime I talk to her and get her smiling, two little heads squeeze in and have to get her to smile just for them, it's very cute. She is getting slightly easier as the weeks go by, she was actually in her carseat the other day for an extended period of time, and she wasn't screaming, or even fussing for that matter. We love having her here and I know Peyton will really love having a little friend to play with as soon as she's able.

Halli is now riding her bike without training wheels, she's been doing it for awhile now, but still insists on having the training wheels on when she's riding around with her friend (aka blake), it's easier for her to stay with him that way. Well, today she did really well, and is starting to learn how to start and stop better. She is such a big girl, I can't believe how fast she's growing, and how fast the time goes by.

Not to be left out, Peyton is talking more these days, alot of which you can't understand, but as we were riding bikes this afternoon, when cars would come we'd tell the girls to get out of the road, and Peyton's reaction was darling, I love how she says, "car coming"! Don't mind her hair I really did do it this morning, in a ponytail, guess it's not quite long enough to stay up all day long, and I didn't really feel like fixing it since we didn't go anywhere. Poor girl can look back at this and just feel so cared for!

Monkey see, Monkey do

Poor Halli just can't catch a break. No matter what she does, even if it will bring no harm to her and she is fully capable to do whatever it is...she gets in trouble. She watches Peyton stand in the booth at dinner, but will get in trouble if she does it. She tries to leave the table from dinner too early and gets in trouble. She climbs over the seats in the car and gets in trouble, but not for the reason you may be thinking. You see, she has a little monkey that follows her wherever she goes.

Peyton is Halli's shadow these days. Whatever Halli does, Peyton does, and this isn't just the normal things you may be thinking of. Just today, Halli was playing in her kitchen and was "eating" a plastic strawberry. Somehow this strawberry got stuck in her mouth. She came running downstairs, screaming as best she could through the strawberry, and I helped her get it out. Peyton, seeing all this happen,picked up a plastic pancake, put it in her mouth and came running to me, acting like it was stuck. She was so happy when I finally released it from her jaws.

Later on, Halli was playing in my room and somehow cut the bottom of her foot. She came hopping out of the room and I told her to put a wet paper towel on it. When she hopped into the kitchen to take care of it, Peyton walked over to me, whining, sat down and pointed to the bottom of her foot, cause it hurt so bad! Then she stole Halli's towel and put it on her own "wounded" foot.

Lastly, right before bed, I was holding Lexie and she started smiling, Halli, seeing this had to hold her and see her smile at her. She asked to hold Lexie, and Peyton came and sat between us, and asked to hold her too.

It is so adorable watching Peyton mimick her older sis, but poor Halli is just going to get in even more trouble when she disobeys, cause now, her shadow is sure to do the naughty deed as well.

New room

When my parents were here last week, I did what I always do, and put them to work. We got Peyton/Lexie's room ready. My dad went to work putting up the beadboard paneling, and my mom and I painted (although she did more of it than I did, I pretty much tried to keep the girls out.) I love having another room finished, and it is so calm and relaxing in there, so in a few months when we move Lexie in, it'll be all ready for her.



The beautiful curtains are compliments of my amazing mom! She did a GREAT job and they look SO elegant! I love the way they just finish off the room!

Pool Day

Yesterday we headed to the Pool at the Williams house, it has kinda become our weekly tradition. The family all meets there and all the kiddos splash and play all morning. Well earlier this week, I received a couple gifts from my grandma & Aunt for little Lexie. One of them was this Beautiful new swimsuit. I just had to get the little girl in the pool for her first time, and she looked absolutely adorable! Thanks for the swimsuit, we'll be sure to get lots of use out of it!

Her first dip in the pool...with many, many more to come. Halli had to be right there, watching her the whole time. In fact, I don't have pictures of it, but she later went and put floaties on so she wouldn't get tired trying to stay right by me. What a great big sis!

Lexie's Blessing

This past weekend, we were lucky to have my parents come in town for Lexie's Blessing. It has been great to have everyone here(Eric & Jill came down as well) and the girls have loved having all these people to entertain them. Yesterday we were all able to attend the blessing, it was beautiful. There is something about seeing these precious babies surrounded by all these men who are able to give them this beautiful gift. We were able to see it three times because our ever diligent ward keeps popping those babies out and we had three blessings that day. Kevin was very glad that Lexie didn't cry at all, as we were all sure she would scream the entire time. She looked beautiful in her dress and as soon as I get the chance I'll take some better pictures and post them. In the meantime here are some pictures with the family after the blessing.