yet another new mom trick...

When you're trying to get out the door, and your child has become mobile, you can bribe/encourage them to sit still by throwing a handful of goldfish crackers on the floor!! :)

No worries, people...there's more wisdom where that came from... :)

multi-tasking

This girl is OFFICIALLY a multi-tasking mama!! Look at her go... :)

o, christmas tree...

Pictures can NOT do it justice...it's the most beautiful tree I've EVER SEEN!! You'll just have to come over to experience the warm fuzzies you get when looking at it. Thanks to my mom who somehow turned my Target finds into this masterpiece!

way to go, hawks!!

Yesterday morning my daddy selflessly stayed home from church so he could attend the Seahawks Prayer Meeting on tv. It worked...they won. :)

GO HAWKS!!!

hailey's first parade...

Hailey went to her first parade yesterday in Seattle...it was an EARLY morning (for us) but so much fun! Todd's folks, Aaron, Lisa, Gabby and the three of us headed downtown to meet up with a bunch of Todd's cousins and his aunt Carey. GOOD TIMES!!

Hailey and GrandmaLisa & Abby
Grandpa & Hailey
Kelli & Gabby
Darrell & Jersey
Hailey & Daddy
Kaleb & Jeremy
The WSU band (sorry, Chris...the camera died before UW came through :)
Todd & Darrell with their girls...
We're hoping to make this a day after Thanksgiving tradition! :)

Whew....

Here's a bunch of pics from the last few days...I hate blogger and that it won't let me move the order of these pics, so you'll just have to deal with looking at them in the wrong order! :)

First off, here's a picture of Todd modeling Hailey's new jacket she got from her cousin Gabby. Here's Todd being a dork (again!!) opening his present.
Here's Gabby...just being her cute self... :)
Here's Hailey hanging out with Unkie Aaron...sorry I couldn't fix her scary looking eyes! My red eye fix didn't help at all...
Here's the disaster hotel room after the excanging of gifts!! (I may have forgotten to mention that we had our Christmas together since they won't be out this way again until after the 1st of the year... :)
No explaination necessary... :)
Again...just Hailey's cute self...
This is her excited face...she was laughing about something, but I can't remember what it was... :)
Here she is opening her very first ever Christmas gift! She did pretty good, actually...
And last, but not least, Gabby opening presents...
We had such a hectic few days, driving to Portland and back in less than 24 hours, but all in all a very fun Thanksgiving! I'd tell the whole story in "Jessica-style" (aka REAL TIME), but I'm pooped...it's off to bed for me! :)

kaden jay to the rescue!!

Today while Hailey and I were walking with Jenny, Kaden and Rylan Vollmer (as we do every Wednesday and Friday) Kaden SAVED THE DAY!! Jenny and I were truckin' along, trying to burn some calories in the SeaTac Mall (don't judge!) and Kaden started talking away...we didn't think anything of it at first, since he often talks to Hailey and Ry, but pretty soon it became apparent that he was trying to get his mom's attention. He kept repeating something that resembled "stinkie", which we immediately thought meant that someone needed changing, but it turned out he was saying "binkie"! We turned and looked behind us and saw that Hailey had pulled off her paci clip and thrown it on the ground quite a ways back! Silly girl...

Way to go, Kaden!! :)

**Thank you to the Vollmer blog for this picture that I STOLE!! :)**

so sweet...

I just love it when she sleeps...not only because then I can sleep, but also because she's so cute! I never realized she actually cared about this teddy bear I always tuck her in with, so now I know... :)

splish, splash...

I love my bath time! Especially since I learned how to splash! :)
Here's my mom frantically trying to shield herself with a towel.

I'm so proud of myself.
Again, my mom could have tried harder to stop the splashing, but she didn't...instead she and my daddy took these pictures and then cleaned up quite a mess... :)

Update...

I've heard back from 2 out of 5 of the teachers I emailed. I got great responses, so continue to pray that I'll hear back from the rest...and please pray that our Thanksgiving Club will be a success on Monday night!

look what i can do...

i can make a mess...



but, in all fairness, my mom did snap all these pictures instead of stopping me from digging in her cupboards... :)

bravery is...

emailing several teachers AND the principal at FWHS about Thanksgiving Club on Monday...I opened up a faculty list and started emailing away...pray that they are received well... :)

she's so close...

Look at this girl!!! She's pulling herself up on EVERYTHING, letting go and standing by herself, and just started pushing this toy and taking steps...it's just a matter of time until she takes off and I'm NOT READY!!! :)

Such a big girl...

when you poo on your clothes...

you have to borrow a t-shirt from Auntie Sheeshe.



Here's what makes these pics so funny...

1. The shirt is GIGANTIC on her

2. I'm pretty sure this shirt has been worn by Christy, Alicia, and myself at one time.

3. It actually says, "When Idaho Potatoes Go Bad" with a potato holding up 3 other potatoes at gunpoint.

4. She wore it until I gave her a bath late this afternoon. You should have seen her try to crawl around in it! :)

We're Back...

Well, we made it home all in one piece! Hailey did AWESOME on the way home...she slept for the first hour and a half of the flight...in my arms, no less! Very pleasant, I must say! :) We rushed straight to an appointment at our pediatricians so Hailey's poor diaper rash (and shootie-bootie) could be assessed. Poor baby...she's still got such an ouchie bum, but it's getting better. The doc thinks she caught a little stomach bug along the way somewhere...such a bummer. Thanks for all the suggestions, mommies! :)

We got home to find that our furnace didn't work. That was awesome. Our house was freezing last night, but it's been fixed.

One of the highlights for the trip for me was this awesome knock-off handbag I found!! Isn't it cute? It's even big enough to be a purse/diaper bag! I just love it...if anyone finds themselves in need of a new designer knock-off handbag, the store I got it from (Purses For A Princess) has a website! :) Erin Tangen (who's probably working on getting her blog set up as we speak) will email me a few more pics from the trip, so when I get them I'll be sure to post them. THANK YOU TANGENS for taking us to Palm Springs...it was so much fun! :)