Check out my new ride...

Here are some pictures of Hailey's new favorite thing... her scooter. She has absolutely loved it from the moment we brought it home and she has played with it everyday since. She immediately figured out how to ride it and she is already really good at it. She has fallen a couple times when she starts going downhill and she can't quite keep up with the scooter. But she is a trooper and gets right back up without crying and starts riding it again. She also loves to wear her bike helmet (thanks to the good examples set by her cousins) and I have to admit she looks pretty cute in it. I think my favorite part is what happens after she rides the scooter; it consumes so much of her energy that by the end of the night it only takes her about five minutes to fall asleep. Gotta love that!

A weekends worth of fun...

I’ve been feeling lately like I have been stuck in a rut. Doing the same things day after day; I even find myself eating the same foods each week. It almost seems like life gets so busy that you start just going through the same motions everyday. It’s a vicious cycle that I find myself falling into without even knowing it. So, this past weekend we tried to do things to do that would be different that what we usually do.
On Friday Hailey and I went to the zoo with Marti. I had the day off and Marti was watching her cousin, Lexi. Hailey and Lexi are about the same age and they were so sweet to each other. Lexi let Hailey ride in her stroller (because of course Hailey liked Lexi's stroller better) and Hailey loved sharing her graham crackers with Lexi. The carousel is now open at the zoo and Hailey loved choosing what animal she was going to ride. We ran out of time for the train, but that is the wonderful thing about having a zoo pass; we can always go back if we don't get to do everything in one trip.



That night we went up in the canyon with some of our friends. We made s’mores and just sat by the campfire and talked. I can’t believe that Hailey is two-years-old and we have never taken her to a campfire. Hopefully we will start going a little more often because it was fun and relaxing at the same time and Hailey loved it.



Saturday we went to my parent’s house to go swimming. When we pulled up to the pool we were surprised to see my brother Daren (who is going to dental school in Las Vegas) and his kids, Josie and Curen. Then my parents came home with Sadie, Luke and Sam. So, we took Sadie with us and met the others at the pool where we spent the afternoon. Hailey actually wanted to use her floaties this time so I didn’t have to hold her in the pool. It was so cute to watch her kick her little legs in the water trying to chase Grandpa.

Hailey showing us how she floats on her back.
And blowing bubbles in the water.
And now this week I am really glad that we did some fun things last weekend because Hailey got sick on Tuesday, so we have been staying in every night. Hopefully she will get better soon! It is miserable when she is sick... and I am sure it's only worse for her.

Vegas Vacation...

Ah, the bright lights of Vegas.

There is nothing quite like it and what a way to spend a relaxing weekend. Our plan was nothing more than to lay by the pool and go swimming all weekend long.

Hailey rode down with my parents the day before we left. That definitely worked out in our favor because she got to watch movies the whole way down. I had also packed her a bag with some snacks, coloring books and other car friendly entertainment. My mom said that she did great! (Probably better than me, I had severe ADD from Mesquite to Vegas.)
The first day of our Vegas trip started off with Hailey wanting to paint Greg’s toe nails. I was pretty impressed at how well she did; so I have made the decision to start making her earn her keep and she is now giving pedicures. Please call to check availability and make an appointment. Right now she is pretty open, but I think with this advertising she will book up pretty fast.

Anyway, the first day at the pool we walked down and saw a family that had a floating car for there little boys. Hailey of course loved it said she wanted it, I think I remember telling her that it wasn’t ours so we couldn’t use it. A little later Grandma and Grandpa were swimming with Hailey in the lazy river and we see Hailey go by in the car. She is yelling at me and Greg to look at her honking the horn and trying to run Grandpa over. I guess my mom had talked the people into letting Hailey use the car for a little while. (Anyone who knows my mom knows that she can talk anyone into anything, but they weren’t using the car anyway so it probably wasn’t hard to convince them.) My mom had told Hailey that she got one turn around the lazy river and then they had to give the car back. The guy was helping my mom get Hailey out of the car after her turn and she looked at the guy and asked him if she could have another turn. The guy told my mom that they weren’t using it and she could use it until they were ready to leave. While my mom was talking to them she also found out that they had bout it at Babies R Us and she was convinced that we needed our own. I knew that this would make watching Hailey in the pool so much easier and she would love it too, so that night my mom and I went to try and find one. The store we went to didn’t have one and the lady tried two other stores and they were out as well. She told us to try Toys R Us because they carry the same products. She gave me the address and because it was already late I decided I would make Greg go with me the next day. We ended up finding the car (the only had two left) and she was able to play with it the rest of the trip. It was the best $8 that we spent the whole trip.

Monday night we went to dinner at Margaritaville which was so much fun! They had pirates on stilts walking around and making balloon hats. Hailey really liked the guy that made our hats for us but she wouldn’t wear hers until all of us had them. It was really entertaining there and the food was great! I can’t wait to go back on our next trip. After dinner we walked over to the fountains in front of the Bellagio and watched those for a little while. Hailey loved it, although she was really concerned when she saw ducks in the water but then couldn’t find them after the fountains show.

Wheeler Farm...

These are some pictures of our recent outing to Wheeler Farm. It isn't the most exciting place ever but it was really nice to just get out and do something different. Hailey loves to watch Charlotte's Web, so I think that she really enjoyed being at a farm and seeing all of the animals. She thought that the chicks were really cute and she wanted to hold them. She got a little close to a sheep and it bleated ("baaa", if you prefer) at her. It scared her so she didn't really get too close to any of the other animals. But we bought her some oats (probably the best dollar we have spent in a while) so that she could feed the ducks. She had a lot of fun and then the mean geese found out that she had food and came over. They wanted that food so bad that they would come up and eat it right out of your hand. They even started fighting with each other over the food. Since they are such mean things I wanted Hailey to keep her distance even though she wasn't scared. As we were leaving she kept telling us that she wanted to do it again. She has started doing this anytime we go anywhere or do anything fun she will say over and over and over (much like a broken record... except you can't turn this one off) "I wanna do that again!" And no matter what you say back to her she will just repeat it again and again. It's funny because I use to think that when kids would repeat themselves like that it was because their parents weren't acknowledging them. But I have learned that sometimes it doesn't matter how you respond... they just keep talking. I really do believe that my two-year-old is now an expert on selective hearing. It is probably because she is in her own world and she has a million other things on her mind. If I need to know that she is listening to me, I have to make her look at me before I tell her anything.

Other kids' toys are alway more fun...

Anyone who has kids would have to agree with me that it doesn't matter what you buy your kids, cause they are always going to want what someone else has. The bike that we bought Hailey doesn't even compare to this cool "Flinstone" car that her cousin Sadie has. She absolutely loved it and Sadie was sweet enough to let Hailey play with it all night. We all know that kids can become possessive about what is theirs when other kids are playing with their toys. But these two girls share really well with each other and rarely fight. Hailey has such great cousins; the older ones always do such a good job including her and the ones her age and younger just enjoy being together.

Kids Say The Darndest Things...

The other night I was getting Hailey ready for bed and helping her put on her pajamas. She looked at me and said “I wanna play ALL NIGHT LONG.” It makes me wonder where she picks up some of the stuff she says. Although I am willing to bet that she got this one from Grandma Cole.

More Park Pics...

A few weeks ago I was driving Hailey home from my parent’s house and we drove past a McDonalds play place. Hailey could see the slides from her seat and started telling me “I wanna go down purple slides”. Since it was kind of late I promised her that I would take her another time. Then last week, with the weather being slightly cold outside, we decided to take her to the McDonald’s play place by our house for lunch. Lately, when she goes down slides she will climb up and then sit at the top take her own sweet time before sliding down. So, to make sure that she didn’t get scared or that the other kids didn’t push her down the slide I crawled through an obstacle course to help get her to the slide. Then to get up to the slide you had to climb up on this platform (that was at least as tall as Hailey is) which meant because I had to lift her up, I would have to continue to go up with her every time. After going down with her on the slide twice I decided that this just wasn’t working and it would be better to go to a real park and deal with the cold rather then to try and climb through that maze that was not made for anyone over the age of twelve. (Just for the record this play place didn’t have purple slides, so Hailey is still asking me to take her to the purple slides. But I told her that we have to wait for one of her cousins to come with us so that they can help her go down the slides.) The park was so much better, and it really wasn’t too cold except for a wind chill. We got some extra entertainment there as well. There was this random hippie guy trying to walk on a tight rope tied between two trees. He was actually pretty good and it was funny to watch. I have to show you a picture that we secretly took of him cause Greg would be really disappointed if I didn’t.