Pictorial Trip Down Memory Lane

On my laptop I have a folder named P&P which stands for Petey and Pepper. Those are the names we usually went by at camp. In fact Petey is still what I call my husband. I refer to him as Mike with some people but calling him that? No way, jose. That's just too weird. Anyway, this folder contains only pictures of us. I keep it as the first album in my pictures folder so that I can flip through them often and see just how old we've gotten ;) Seriously, we were BABIES in some of our first pictures!  And, anyone who knows me knows that this barely scratches the surface of all the pictures of the two of us.

Here, take a look for yourself:

Our first picture taken of the two of us June 27, 2006 {my birthday}

Fourth of July 2006 Photo marathon - I'll spare you & only post one. Trust me there are several baaaad ones!

September 4, 2006 - Jed & Jess's wedding; also the day before we officially started dating. That wedding was hands down one of the most awkward experiences of my life. Don't even get me started on the 14+ hour (one way) drive alone with Petey. Awkward. Awkward. Awkward.

November 4, 2006 - Mini golf for our 2 month anniversary (also my parent's wedding anniversary)

December 16, 2006 - Holidazzle Parade - Minneapolis, MN

ENGAGED!!!! January 7, 2007 

March 28, 2007 - hanging out and wedding planning (seriously, BABIES!)

June 23, 2007 - P-Cov Wedding Shower. Yes, those are potato heads

MARRIED!! August 11, 2007 - Twin Lakes, IA

(Also, the hottest day in the history)

April 17, 2008 - One day after being admitted to hospital at 25 weeks pregnant. 

July 2008 - Elliot's first bath at MumMum's house

February 18, 2009 - Surprise!! Little Cupcake is on the way!

October 20, 2009 - Hadley Elizabeth is born!

October 2011 - Our crazy, busy little family!

I'm crying

Hadley, for quite a while now, has been telling us how she's feeling after it's very obvious. For example, "I'm crying" while she's sobbing and dissolving in tears. Or we hear "I sad" or "I'm going back to bed" or "I don't like that" or "That's not vewy nice! but usually "I'm crying". Of course it's said overly dramatically as that seems to sum up my little Hadley.

Here's a picture that sums up her "I'm cryiiiinnnnggggg" phrase:

She's absolutely adorable even when she's crying, no?

Egg Hunt

Sunday, April 10, 2011

It's that time of year again!! I love Easter. I love that it means Spring is here (usually at least) and I love the reminder of what my Savior did for me. I'll also admit I do enjoy some of the cheesier aspects of the holiday as well - like coloring eggs, filling and hunting for eggs, the bunnies, ducks and getting together with family. We're planning to have an egg hunt for the kids at home but we also wanted somewhere for them to go in the community. We knew we were going to miss the egg hunt in Peosta since we were planning to visit family the weekend it was happening so we happened to hear about one at Heritage Manor in Dubuque.

We talked to the kids about hunting for eggs before they took a nap on Sunday and when Elliot woke up he was ready to go! He helped me find their baskets and then anxiously waited for his sister to get up. When Daddy got home from church we loaded up the munchkins and headed to town.

It was such a beautiful day but unfortunately it was pretty toasty inside the building and it was a bit difficult to keep our little people occupied while we waited for things to get underway. The children were all split up according to ages & fortunately both Elliot & Hadley were in the same group. They can be pretty lost without each other sometimes. They had a great time walking the halls with the other kids and when they were given the word to begin collecting they got right down to business. Elliot was a little machine and had his basket full in no time at all. Hadley was a bit more methodical but it didn't take her long to get her basket mostly filled up as well. It was so much fun watching them snatch the eggs and fill their baskets!!

Vocab Explosion

Miss Hadley has had an explosion. No, not the diaper sort of explosion - that's never really been her style - but an explosion of words. Every day she's been busting out new words and new phrases which is so much fun to hear. I love her little voice and when it's saying words I can actually understand it just melts my heart.

So, here's a quick rundown of some of her new words. I'm sure I won't get all of them but here is what I've got off the top of my head:

1. Shoe
2. Mimi - this means Mickey :)
3. Piya - this means Pirate aka Jake & the NeverLand Pirates
4. Did it!
5. Made it!
6. Buckle
7. Seat
8. Sit or Sit down
9. Baaaa - sheep sound
10. Moooooo - she tends to think everything is a cow ;)
11. Stairs - sounds a bit more like star though
12. Hat
13. Baby
14. Box
15. Piece - she usually says this while playing with brother's Thomas puzzle ;)
16. Mum-Mum
17. Peesh - this is please & while she's known how to sign it for a long time she's now saying it at the same time too and it's too cute :)
18. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee - she loves to say this when we're going up or down hills in the car or when she's running around the house. 
19. Lucky - her & Elliot have a big bouncing horse named Lucky. It's also the name of the dog at my parent's house.
20. Eat - she also does the sign with this one consistently.
21. Run
22. Ni-Ni - this means night night & she tells us and her brother every night :)
23. Yeah
24. Mine
25. March
26. Nose

She has such a big personality! She loves to put hats on or make anything into a hat - we find clothes, food, toys, etc. on her head and just chuckle. She has this cheesy grin that gets you every single time. Hadley absolutely hates diaper changes and will run and "hide" when the word diaper is mentioned. Her favorite word to say is "Nooooooo" and shake her head while saying it. She definitely has some pretty strong opinions on things these days!

The shopping monkey

Hadley the shopping monkey. That accurately sums up Miss Hadley lately.

This past weekend she went on three different shopping trips and did fabulously. Almost too fabulously. I'm starting to fear just how expensive she might be in her teen years. There's no doubt this girl loves shoes. Now, there's no doubt she loves to help pick out clothes - particularly her own and her little sister's.

Saturday my mom, Hadley and I went on a marathon shopping trip at the outlet mall in Williamsburg. It was so strange to only have one child & a small umbrella stroller. Usually when I go there I'm with two other friends and a total of 7 children. Yes, it's crazy. Crazy fun as well. Anyway, Hadley had a blast checking everything out & holding clothes up to herself to see how they looked. She also had a good time relieving some racks of their burden..... Sunday she went shopping with Mum-Mum & Papa at Kohl's which was a short but still exciting trip for her.

Yesterday, she came along while I picked out a bridesmaids dress for my best friend's wedding. Seeing all the blingy, pretty things at the bridal store was almost too much for her! And all those mirrors where she could admire herself. Yes, there's no doubt she's our little diva.

Hadley has also been quite the little monkey. Several times a day I pull her off the top of the kitchen table and I tell her to sit down 1,000,000,000,000,000 times a day before she falls off of something and breaks an important body part. She's easily surpassed her brother in the number of bumps and bruises she's acquired. Suffice it to say she's not afraid of much and is quite the little dare-devil.

Meow

Seriously, how adorable is this? Hadley has been hauling this kitty around the house for the past week or so. She gets upset when her brother takes things from her but this is one thing that she will absolutely not tolerate him having. The epic tantrums when he lays a hand on it are evidence of that. I always know where she is when she's carrying kitty because I can hear her 'meowing' over and over. She's also on my side in trying to convince Daddy we need to get a real kitty for our house. So far I've had no luck......

The Talking Toddler

Some of my mommy friends and myself were discussing how many words our little people are saying these days. The little person I'm specifically talking about is Hadley. While it took Elliot awhile to really starting talking a lot there's nothing stopping him now! I would be counting a LONG time before I got to the end of his vocabulary & by that time he no doubt would have added several more words. I love hearing him talk and communicate a lot more now. It's especially nice that I can now understand a great deal of what he's saying to me - definitely cuts down on the frustrated tantrums.

So, I thought it would be fun to compile a list of words Hadley knows. I'll try to get all of them although I make no guarantees!

1. DaDa - Daddy
2. Mom - she usually only uses this when upset
3. Papa - one of her clearest words. She takes great joy in this one.
4. Mum-Mum - this is a fairly new one but she's mighty proud of it.
5. Uh-Oh - We hear this a lot.
6. Vroom - Cars & trucks are her favorite :)
7. Meow - she can also point out kitties in books
8. Ma - this means 'more'. She also does the sign for this
9. Done - she also does the sign for all done
10. Dan - she LOVES her Uncle Dan & can't keep a straight face while saying his name. It's beyond adorable.
11. Nana - Bananas are her current favorite fruit.
12. Please - she only knows the sign for this - can't say it yet.
13. Thank you - again she only does the sign for this but she does know what she's saying so I count it!
14. Bu - Book. Another favorite of Hadley's
15. Ba - Bus. Elliot has an obsession with school buses so Hadley & I hear about the 'cool bus' ALL day long.
16. Boom - pretty self explanatory

I'm sure there are some I'm missing but I'll have to come back and update later if I think of them. Her comprehension of what we say is what amazes me most. She's almost got the sign for drink down. When asked what a dog says Hadley pants - like her brother. It's pretty funny. She'll also blow kisses when asked to say 'I love you!' She loves to wave 'hi' and 'bye'. Watching her dance is also a fun past time.

Thank you for allowing me to brag on my baby girl :) She is such a happy little thing & never ceases to bring a smile to my face!