Already?

We have discovered quite a bit today about Hailey. I was sitting in the floor playing witht the girls this morning and William asked me "when did Cheyenne start pulling up on things?" I got out the her baby album and saw that she was pulling herself up at 7.5 months. Well, Hailey is 7 months now. She can't quite pull up but if you stand her up and show her to hold on, she does! Wow! Never even thought about it to be quite honest. With our life focusing on both girls now, things like that just aren't a though. William also informed me that when he got Hailey up from her nap this morning that she was on her knees and hands rocking back and forth. The first step to crawling! Since then I've put her on her tummy some and sure enough she gets on her knees and starts rocking! Wow, she's growing up so fast! (Hailey has her paci in most pictures the last few days. She is cutting several teeth and it seems to give her some relief to chew on it. Seriously she grinds the thing!)

My girlsGetting up on those knees!

Rocking back and forth

Muah!

Mommy and Hailey (7 months)

Standing holding on to her toy

Standing!

"Hot Chocolate Mommy!"

A Girl and Her Tricycle

Pretty horseys

I snapped these today...wish I could have gotten closer..but I think I spooked them a little and was afraid they might try to come after me though the fence!

Natural Science Center

We hadn't taken Cheyenne to the Science center since last fall. She wasn't interested in anything except the outdoor zoo. This time she loved everything! We only stayed about 45 minutes because Hailey had a little meltdown (she had only napped for 20 minutes this morning). But I wasn't going to ONCE AGAIN be a slave to her sleeping. For the past 3 weeks her sleep is all over the place. Chey got to pet a rabbitt and saw turtles, an armadillo, sheep and fish! I know she would have loved to stay longer..maybe next time!

Hanging Rock

This afternoon, William and I took Cheyenne to Hanging Rock. The weather was so beautiful I wanted to get outdoors as much as possible and soak it all in. Mom and dad kept Hailey for a little while for us. We probably could've handled taking Hailey but it was so nice not having to worry about when she needed to nap, having to stop and feed her, etc. It was great just to spend some time with Cheyenne. The trails had some slush from the snow still on them, but we were able to manage (and alot of other people did too!) It wasn't crowded but there were plenty of people enjoying the weather. We made the trek to one of the waterfalls and back and stopped to have a snack. Cheyenne's favorite right now is carrots dipped in ranch so that's what we had. We had a great afternoon with our little (big) girl.

Jumping over the tree!

Chey and Daddy at the waterfall

A portion of the trail was still slushy from all the snow so Chey rode on my back in the Ergo for a little while. What a workout! Chey is 31 lbs...

My baby girl
Me and Chey

A great day with our oldest daughter!
Exhausted... and so cute.

Chey and Hailey 1st Bath Together

The girls bathed together tonight for the 1st time. They had so much fun! Hailey loved being in the tub with Cheyenne. She grinned the whole time, until Chey poured water on her head...

Chey's 1st haircut, Hailey's Bath in the Sink and a Gorgeous Day Outside

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Hailey Bathes in the Sink

Hailey has been using our infant toddler tub for her baths. She absolutely hates laying back now and prefers to sit up all the time. The non-slip pad that was in that part of the tub came off and before I got to superglue it back, has gone missing (think Chey has something to do with that maybe...) I have never bathed either my my kids in the kitchen sink. I just never did. Well I don't feel comfortable enough yet to put Hailey in the big tub. I'd have to hold her the whole time in case she fell over. So I thought, hey, I'll put her in the sink and see how that goes. Well, it was a photo op. but truth is, it was so much more work. Bringing the towel and soap downstairs, taking her back up to get dressed, feed and then put to bed. I think I'll do the bath tub the next time she gets a bath. The sink just didn't work for us. Chey liked being able to help though. She loved getting Hailey "all clean" as she liked to say.

Chey's 1st haircut

Cheyenne had her very 1's haircut today! Well, it was just a trim. We worked so hard to let her bangs grow out and they finally go up into her ponytail and out of her face so I just couldn't cut them. It's amazing how long her hair is when you brush out those curls. Gail did put aside a little curl for me to keep. She did great. She was hesistent at first and of course she didn't sit absolutely still but overall I was impressed with her! I gave her my phone and she pretended to talk to daddy so that kept her engaged long enough for Gail to cut it. Thanks Gail, you did great!

Our First Born

Our first born is a

loving,

insanely smart,

spirited (read-hardheaded),

adorable, funny,

curious,

beautiful blue eyed girl who marches to the beat of her own drum...

and I we wouldn't have it any other way. Well, most days anyway. :)

Make that 3 days in a row...

Day 3 of poop everywhere. I'm seriously gonna lose it.

This one needs no title

Inspired by my sister, Jen's, latest post I'm going to share with you how my day went yesterday, and the day before. Jen said that Emma put her hands in her poopy diaper for the 1st time today. Well, Chey has done this many, many times. But not to the extent she has the last couple of days. Potty training is NOT easy. She is getting very good at telling me when she needs to go, but sometimes it is just a pain in the rear-end. For example, I went to get Chey up from her nap yesterday, only to find her with a wipe in her hand trying to "clean up" the poop on the carpet. Needless to say all she did was rub it in. We're not talking just a regular poop either. She must have ate something that didn't agree with her because this was one of the worst ones I've seen. It was up her back, on her clothes, on her hands, on the doorknob, lightswitch, carpet, stepstool (that she uses to get up in her bed), and wall.I know she was just trying to clean herself up, but she made things so much worse And ya know what? This was the 2nd day in a row. Although yesterday's poop was pretty normal and didn't find it in quite as many places. I didn't even know where to start. I put gloves on, picked her up and put her in the tub, clothes and all. (Meanwhile Hailey has woken from her nap and is now screaming because I haven't gotten her yet, but she'll have to wait.) It took 3 rounds of using our Bissell "spot bot" to get the stain out of the carpet. During all this I called William and had the phone on speaker relaying what was going on. All I could say was "what did I do to deserve this?" Funny, as I'm typing this I swear I can smell that poop and Chey isn't even here, she's at school. Ugghh! So Jen, you're not alone, and no it won't be the last time Emma does this! You have all the sympathy from me because it is not fun! They should give you a RX for valium for life when you leave the hospital with your newborn... For those of you who are going "wow, I really didn't need to know all that!" ha, tough. Being the mother of a toddler is no walk in the park. I love her to death but sometimes I think she will be the death of me...

Monochrome

I had an assignment this week for my class to take a monochrome picture, meaning it had to be all one color, or shades of the same color. I took this yesterday. Thought it turned out pretty well.

Potty Training

Chey is still doing great potty training. She stays dry most days. We've started putting big girl panties on during the day and she'll tell me every once in a while that she's dry. She's finally starting to tell me that she has to go. This is key for when we're out and about so I can get her to the bathroom! We have not braved no diaper while out. I'll attempt this when I don't have Hailey with me, because I know an accident is enevitable. Chey also loves to wear her rainboots around the house. I can't keep em off her!

No Caption Necessary

What's Up?

Hailey in the Ergo

I know I'm going to jinx myself, but I've had the best week in a long, long time. Cheyenne hasn't threw a fit all week, I've lost 6lbs and been in a really good mood, and despite getting up with Hailey 3 or 4 times a night (shes teething again) things are pretty much going my way! Hailey is napping great, although I can't hardly put her down when she's awake. She's happy and playing and all of a sudden she's crying. Tends to be towards the last hour she's awake...guess she's starting to get tired and her gums hurting is a little more noticable. So I just pop her in the Ergo carrier and that works for a little while.

Chey had school this week. She missed all last week because of all that snow we got. It does her good to have a place to channel her energy. Preschool is so good for her. Her behavior is better when she has had school because she's gotten to play, run around and socialize. You can tell when she's been cooped up for a while. It's NOT pretty...

Anyway, this week we visited the childrens' museum, went to the grocery store and had a Dr appointment. Chey had her 2 year checkup and Hailey got a vaccine that she was supposed to get the week before at her 6 month check up. I wouldn't let them give it to her that day because she was already getting 2 shots. I made them spread it out some. That's alot at one time, ya know? Hailey is 6.5 months now and starting to cut back on her milk as she's taking in a little more solids. She loves her solids and having bananas and blueberries in her fresh feeder. She freaks out when she sees it!

Chey is eating great too. I quit buying any and all kind of "junk" food and typical kids snacks like those chewy snacks. Chey hasn't missed them. She asks for yougurt all the time and carrots. She loves carrots and dips them in a little ranch dressing. She's been eating blueberries, salad, carrots, apple slices, banana, chicken, peas, sliced turkey meat, and raisins. I want to keep Cheyenne eating these kinds of things so that she will grow up eating healthy and not have the struggles I've had with weight. I can't remember a time since I was 12 or so that I haven't been trying to lose weight. Hopefully I can instill in Cheyenne a love for healthy food and she will never have to deal with that. I've found several recipes and we got all the ingredients today at the grocery store. We're going to make stuffed roasted tomatoes, stuffed mushroom caps, homemade chicken noodle soup to name a few!

William is still working quite a bit. He had told me in November that December and January were going to be crazy months but after that it would go back to normal. Well last Friday he was "done" with this project. Then 2 days ago, there was a big issue at work that required him to work 19 straight hours just to get the network working again. Apparently the service department at Starr was flipping the wrong break and it was a breaker that one of his main servers was on...it caused so many problems. So it's back to working round the clock, hopefully just for 3 or 4 more days.

This is alot of info at once! Sorry, I've just been posting lots of pictures lately and haven't updated whats been going on around here. So until next time, we'll just be hanging around waiting on baby Ryleigh to make her debut! Jen will be having her any day...

Sleeping Babe

Long, Beautiful Lashes

Mommy's Girls

These 2 just melt my heart...

Hailey's New Favorite Toy

I bought this for Cheyenne when she was about 6 months old. It remained her favorite well until she was a year old. Emma borrowed it and Jen said it quickly became one of her favorites too! Maybe it's the mirror. She loves it!

Fresh Feeder

I never used one of these with Cheyenne. Hailey loves it! I put blueberries, banana, etc in it. Any soft fresh food. She gets so excited when she sees it! It's great for her gums now that she's teething again!