oh, hails...

...you crack me up, girl! :)

ta-da!!

Here are the pics of the dance class. Serious cuteness. And yes, she's wearing snow boots and a hoodie with her tutu. There was nothing delicate about the "clomp-clomp" sound as she pranced around the room.If blogger had published my pics in order, I'd have been able to put these pics at the end of the post, to show how in the last 3 minutes Hailey was finally warm enough to ditch the jacket and boots. And I'm pretty sure she had to go potty...oops! :/This was her favorite part of the class. A wand with a ribbon. Why didn't I think of that??

Here's Hailey "rolling down the river". She practices this at home a lot with her little brother.

I participated in the class for a while, myself. Good times.

What cute ballerinas!!

When we got home, Todd tried with all his might to persuade Hailey to take basketball lessons instead of ballet.

She wasn't havin' it. ;)

pre-dance class fashion show...

Today Hailey had her very first ever dance class...and boy, was it cute!

She started out a little bit timid...needed me and my friend Jen to hang with her in the class and hold her hand, but about 10 minutes into it (thanks to her sweet friend Maddie who was so good at including her!) she was a DANCING QUEEN!

She twirled, she lept, she hopped like a bunny...it was magical.

The best part, you ask? She insisted on leaving her snow boots on with the above pictured outfit! I'm a horrible mother, as I left my camera on the table after having taken these beauties, so I have to wait for my friend Jen to share hers with me.

All in all, it was a success!

(No one need worry about Owen...I dressed him in some very manly "camo" pants for the occasion... :)

more of Owen...

He's just so cute, I couldn't help myself...he loved the snow, being outside in it, and watching his sister and cousin play...

my favorite pics from LEAVENWORTH...

We had the best time on our trip...and the best part of the whole thing, you ask?? Our cute kids!! We had to walk a ways to get to the hill that we used for tubing, so the kids got to ride there like this... :)

Todd's goal in life is to be sure that our kids are fearless...I, on the other hand, am NOT. Be careful, Todd!Here's my sweet nephew, Caser. Love him.

Gotta love eating snow! (Don't worry, people...none of it was contaminated! :)

While we were unpacking the day we got to the condo, the kids were playing so well together...and this is how we found Case & Hailey! Both of them just hoisted themselves into the exersaucer to play and then would laugh hysterically pretending they were babies! :)

Here's my boy...and his 4 teeth! (He's been working on 5, 6 and 7 this weekend)

When we asked Hailey on the way home what her favorite part of the trip was, she said, "TUBING!!"

All in all, a fabulous trip! We just love Leavenworth... :)

as promised...

Here are the pics of my newly re-decorated living room. I love it!First off, we put our loveseat in the office and brought in these leather chairs.

Then we did more furniture-swapping, sold one of our couches, are working on selling our two brown leather recliners, and got this micro-fiber sectional at Costco.

It's unbelievably comfortable!!

A little toy-sorting, flipped our rug over, cleaned the heck out of the floors and...voila!!

(I thought about staging it, cleaning up the toys, turning the TV off and making Todd move for the picture, but let's be honest...this is what it will look like most of the time... ;)

a fly on the wall

After sharing many of the hard bedtime moments we've had at our house, I thought I'd share for you one of the sweetest ones yet...

(We've brushed, pottied, kissed goodnight, and said round 1 of prayers by now...)

Hailey: Mom? Can you feel my cough better like my fever? (I kissed her forehead the night before to help her fever)

Me: Sure, Hailey! (I then smothered her face with mommy kisses)

Hailey: *cough* It's not better! It didn't work!

Me: Sometimes it takes a while, Hails...sorry.

Hailey: We could ask Jesus to feel me better.

Me: Great idea...wanna pray now?

Hailey: Of course! Dear Jesus, thank you for this BEAUUUUTIFUL day. Please help my cough feel better. Amen! *cough, cough, cough* Hey! I still coughed!

Me: Sometimes when we ask Jesus for things, we have to wait a while.

Hailey: I think Jesus should get a cell phone...so He could call us.

Me: Yup...we can ask for that another time.

Ahhh, the mind of a little girl... :)