1st day of school

Yesterday was Hailey's first day of Kindergarten. She was so excited for the day! The night before she picked out her favorite outfit to wear to the first day of school down to what socks and bow she wanted. It was really cute. We took some pictures at home of her with each of us. (Dan has been sick with strep, so he stayed a little further away) We jumped in the car and I asked Hailey if she needed help with her seat belt and she said, "No mom I am a kindergartner I do not need help." When we got to school Hailey was very excited to be there.. I was not. I have been dreading this day for a while now and so has Ethan. I am truly excited for her, but sad that I will not get to see her as much as I have always been able. I was doing fine walking down the hall until a friend says... "Are you ready for this?" That was all that I needed for the tears to start flowing! Hailey didn't notice me crying which was nice. She was skipping off into her classroom when I grabbed her arm for one last goodbye hug and kiss... unfortunately I gouged her arm with my fingernail and made her bleed! That is when she started to cry! After a few minutes of tender loves and reassurance from her teacher, she was ready to go. Ethan and I came back to spend the lunch hour with her. It was fun to see her be so independent as she took the lunch tray through the line. When I picked her up from school she ran to me with a big smile and told me about the 3 recesses that she had, the friends she met and the art project that she did. I sure love this little girl. She is growing up so fast!



Hailey ready to go out the door to school!



Outside the classroom waiting for the bell to ring!
We tried to get a good picture outside of the school but the sun was in a bad spot... she is still cute though!
Hailey at her first school lunch. Corndogs, YUM!

Queen for the day

As many of you know, Hailey went to dance competition this past weekend. We had a great time with the entire experience. She was VERY excited to go and the results were great. I was worried that she would be scared or nervous.. but she was not!! She was so excited she almost didn't know how to contain herself. She wanted to get ready over 3 hours early!! She also got to sit and watch her BFF Lainey do her solo and get her award before she went. We intentionally entered them in different categories so that they would not have to compete against each other. This first picture is of Hailey waiting for her turn to go on with her Grandma Leigh (Dan's mom). She insisted that grandma take her over there (thanks grandma I know that it made you nervous!) The next one is of Hailey chatting it up with the lane judge while waiting for her name to be called (She actually started walking on before her name was even called!). The next one is of Hailey waiting at the awards ceremony saying, "I won, I won!". The last one is of Hailey with her TROPHY. She won Queen!!! How fun and exciting for her at her first competition. I think that dance competitions are going to be something that we continue to do for a while because you all know how much I love them and know Hailey loves them to!! I am thrilled for my little girl to start dancing in competitions more regularly because she loves it. Thanks to Abby for making us go with her and her sisters and for Miss Neika for the FABULOUS dance from class last year! I also put a video of her solo on here for all of you to see.

Friday Night Entertainment

Friday nights at our house can be pretty entertaining with two little kiddos. The kids wanted us to turn music on for them to "jam to" and these 2 videos are the results! I would just like all of you to note how Ethan tries to copy EVERYTHING that Hailey is doing. Also note the hip shaking on our princess, where did that come from? Grandma's and Grandpa's we hope that you enjoy these because they are a little bit long! Oh and sorry about Ethan in the underwear. We are re-potty training after the holidays and pants just get in the way. Remember to turn the music off on the bottom of the page before you watch the video!

Sand dunes in Moab

We went to Moab AGAIN this last weekend for some MORE family fun! We ended up most of the weekend at the sand dunes riding four wheelers, motorcycles and the rhino! The kids had a blast with their Uncle Jason and cousins. Besides Christina pushing Ethan out of the truck and Jason hitting on Ryan's woman, the trip was a success!

Giddy up cowboy!

The same day that Hailey started preschool we went to our friend Kelly's house and she let the kids ride her little miniature pony(I know that there is a technical name, but I have no idea what it is). The pony was so nice and easy with the kids, even Ethan was daring enough to get on Dara. They even got the chance to feed their other horses. I just have to say thanks to Kelly for taking my kids around her yard so many times they had a blast!

The first Day of Preschool

I am sad to say that Tuesday was Hailey's first day of preschool. I think that I had more sadness about the day than I would like to admit! She ran out when I got there to pick her up and said "Mom I had so much fun! I did so many things. But, I think that I can just stay home from school. I don't need to go anymore!" Luckily I bribed her to go on Thursday and she loved it even more.

Shaving cream art

We had some extra kids here yesterday and we did shaving cream art. It went from an educational activity to a messy one very fast. Thanks mostly to Ethan and Lainey!

Hailey's first bike wreck!

The day has finally come that Hailey has crashed hard on her bike. I have been trying to take her out every day on our dirt roads so that she can learn how to ride better on her own. She is slowly learning what I call the "vital" skills, i.e. braking, keeping her balance, falling correctly ect. We have been practicing going down hills and braking and she has not really been catching on because the speed makes her frightened and she forgets about everything she has learned. On Monday night we went out riding for a while and she was insistent that she ride down the hill to our house by herself. She did okay until she had to turn while going downhill (a skill we haven't worked on yet!) The result was Hailey sticking both legs out to the side while screaming "I am going to crash". And she did. She flipped right over the handle bars and got road rash on her nose and a nice spilt open lip. Thank goodness she was wearing a helmet!

Professional Artwork for sale

After we woke up this morning Hailey asked if she could draw some pictures. She is really into drawing "people" right now. They are very accurate and truly to scale as you will see below. The first picture that she brought to me was of Dan and I. The people are appropriately labeled (by Hailey herself)I thought that you might be humored by her expertise. While you are looking at them note the jagged edges of the pages. She cut the pictures out herself and was very proud of her product.


Note the 3 eyes on mom and the small stature of dad compared to mom. I also like how mom has no hair on her head. I really think that she mixed us up when she was writing our names. She then brought me the drawing below of Hailey and Ethan and said "look mom I drew a perfect picture of Ethan and I. I even got his short hair right. And look mom I am still the big sister and Ethan is little." I found that amusing because Ethan is not much smaller than her. I think that it was her way of letting us know that she is the "bigger" sister.



Next, she brought me a picture of Josh and Travis (2 of her uncles). I found this picture to be the best. Josh is the bigger of the two with what Hailey describes as "his big body, short hair and big eyes." She then proceeds to tell me that Travis is "smaller with glasses (that is what the extra lines under and between his eyes are supposed to be.) and long crazy girl hair."



After she brought me all 3 pictures she said "mom I think that we should take these to the grocery store and sell them, they are amazing!"

2 Fun weekends

Hailey's First Dance Recital

Well we had a fun weekend with our families. They all came up to Wyoming for Hailey's first dance recital. I thought that I could share with you a few cute pictures from her big day. She was so funny because she just had to be in the front row for the recital and she had to be standing on a red dot. Other wise there was a lot of tears! She was given the "Star Performer" award at the end. She was pretty excited about this!