Champion Kids

Awhile back I took Hayden to a Gymboree Play & Music which was awesome, but the membership is $65 per month!  One of the ladies their told me about Champion Kids which is $6 each time you go play at open gym (much more affordable!)  So Hayden and I tried it out last Friday and she had so much fun!  I need to start asking some moms from our church to come along, but I am so used to it just being Hayden and I. 

 This was a giant foam pit

 The rollercoaster

Although there were tons of cool things, the bench was definitely her favorite attraction!

Here's a video of her going down the rollercoaster:

If I Die Young

Paul keeps hearing this song on his commute and looked it up on youtube to play it for me.  Well, Hayden LOVES it and will sit still in my lap forever and wants it played over and over again.  It's a sad song, but she loves it...

New House Pics

 Well, we are still not totally settled, but we have finally hung our wall decor.  I am still working on curtains, but one thing at a time, right?.....

 The paint looks a lot more brown in person, nonetheless Paul still doesn't like the way it looks in person and we will probably be changing this someday soon.

 This is where the breakfast table should go, but because we don't have one we made it into Hayden's play area for now.

 This should be the living room, but again, because we don't have any furniture we made it into our office.

 Kitchen, I actually do like the green and will probably keep it this way for a long time.

 I still don't know what to do with this room: craft room, move office here, reading room???  Any ideas?

 Guest room for anyone who wants to come visit us down South!

 Future therapy room, I haven't really done much with this yet as I am still waiting on my license to transfer!

This will someday be a hang out area or play room but this part of the basement is empty for now

FHE

This is LDS lingo for "Family Home Evening."  Paul and I decided we had better start this up again with Hayden to get us in the habit .  We have been going through the nursery manual lessons.  We keep it real short and then let her color.  She thinks it's really funny when we sing the opening song to her, like we are putting on a private show for her. 

Here is a couple of pictures of her latest FHE project!

I love this picture, she was so proud of her work.  You will also notice her "silly band."  A little girl gave her one and she is obsessed with wearing it, I don't get those things!

p.s.  Hayden cried when I left her to swim today at the YMCA, I don't get that either!

YMCA

Paul and I are trying out a free trial week of working-out at the YMCA.  There is one about 3 miles from our house and one close to Paul's office as well.  I don't know why but I always thought YMCAs were for underprivileged people, but this is not the case.  It is more like a community center.  They have a great pool and I am so excited to start swimming again.

This is perfect for Paul because he can drive into Atlanta early in the morning and beat all the traffic and get a workout in and for me because daycare is included in the membership fee.  I don't know why but I have been feeling torn about taking Hayden there.  I felt a little selfish I guess, but she LOVED it.  I thought she would cry when I dropped her off, but I told the woman running the daycare it was her first time and they had one lady who all the children love come take her from me.  As soon as she saw all the neat toys inside she didn't even look back!  When I came to pick her up I could tell she could hear my voice and was peaking out of the corner of her eye, but pretended to not hear me so she could keep playing. 

I'm so glad I can have some time to myself to workout and she also can enjoy her time away from me having fun with new people and new toys.  I was getting so tired of home workouts so this is just what I needed!

17 Months

A couple of nights ago I was talking to my sister Michelle (who is having her 1st baby!!!) and she was telling me a funny dream her husband had about the baby.  That got me curious about the dreams I had during pregnancy and looked back through my journal.  On March 6, 2009 I wrote "I dreamed that the baby was not yet ready to be born, but I got to hold him/her and then put him/her back.  Also, the baby had blue eyes, like that will ever happen."  How crazy is that!  I dreamed that Hayden would have blue eyes but clearly did not believe it!

What Hayden's been up to:

• Playing with mom's jewelry every morning and putting on her necklaces.  She still loves wearing her little bracelets 
• Likes imitating me when I am dusting.  I give her her own dust rag and we go to work!
• Loves playing in the car and pretending to drive
• Likes pushing all the books on our bookshelves to the back
• Likes pushing buttons to make things turn on or open (garage door, washing machine, tv)
• Thinks the garage is the coolest part of our house
• Likes dancing to Glee music
• Likes banging on the piano
• Says "bye bye" after EVERY kiss.  This started because we kiss her goodnight and then she says bye bye when we put her in her crib.  So now she says it even when it's not bedtime!
• Is quite the little scratcher, although since implementing timeouts she has gotten a lot better
• Pinches her cheeks, and says, "ch"
• obsessed with the part of the curtains that turns them open and shut, it is ridiculous, she wants me to hold her all day so she can hold it!
  

Valentine's Day

Well Valentine's Day was not as exciting as it was suppose to be this year.  I was going to take Hayden with me and drive closer to Paul's office and meet him for dinner, go pick up Hayden's Valentine's gift and come home for some yummy dessert.  But that is not what happened due to poor Hayden not feeling well and I myself starting not to feel so hot. 

I like celebrating all the holidays.  I hear people talk about the commercialization of the holiday,  stores just trying to make money, that you should tell family you love them everyday, not just Valentines, the list could go on and on....but I still like it.  It makes life a lot more fun throwing holidays in, doesn't it? 

Well, Paul picked up Hayden's gift and we had left overs :)  I went grocery shopping because we had no eggs and we made scookies (cookies you bake in a skillet and eat with ice cream on top).  Paul even got to come home a little earlier than normal which is probably the best Valentine's gift of all!

Poor little Hayden woke up from her nap with more bumps everywhere and bloody lips from breathing through her mouth due to her stuffy nose.  So the picture of her in her anywhere chair are a little sad...This is seriously the perfect gift for Hayden and it was free :)  We used our credit card points towards pottery barn kids and the chair was even on sale.  She is always trying to make objects into a seat for herself and now she has one, she really does love it!

Family

One great thing about our move to the South is that we are within driving distance to 2 of Paul's 5 brothers.  Russ and his family live in Oxford, Mississippi (where Ole Miss is located) and his brother Scott and his family live in Jackson, Mississippi.  So this past weekend we decided to go and visit.  Paul was even able to leave earlier because he had a sales call he could do in Oxford.  We headed out Thursday afternoon and got to Oxford that night (about a 5 hour drive).  Russ took us to a great Japanese restaurant where they cook all the food right in front of you and put on quite the show.  Hayden loved seeing all the fire and watching him throw eggs around.  

The next day I stayed home with Hayden and my nephew Quincy.  He is about 3 years old and kept us very busy.  It was a small glimpse into what life will look like for me in the future!  Hayden had fun taking a bath with Quincy and playing with him all day long.  Russ had to work and his wife Heidi was at a conference in Florida and also took their youngest son.  That night, Paul's mom flew in and we went out to eat at another fantastic place.  The next day we got the tour of Oxford and went shopping in the downtown square and drove around the Ole Miss. 

 Quincy, Cooper, Garret & Hayden

Sunday we headed to Jackson so that we could watch our nephew Tate be baptized and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  I was so happy we could be a part of this family event and that we could show our support to Tate and his family.  His sister Tylie even sang a solo at the baptism and did such a good job. 

Hayden had so much fun with her cousins and especially liked playing with her oldest cousin Garrett.  He turned 8 not to long ago and was such a good older cousin to her.  He pushed her in cars and found toys for her to play with, what a good kid!  Hayden slept great at Russ and Heidi's house because they had a crib she could sleep in.  That is the key.  All she asks for is a roomy crib to sleep it!  But she did get sick from the trip sadly and now has a rash all over her body.  It is just a virus and I guess they are often accompanied by rashes I was told by my sister-in-law Heidi who is a doctor.  Anyway, her poor legs, back and arms are covered in bumps and she has a cough and runny nose.  Never fun.   It is crazy how much you worry about your child when they are sick. 

I'm sure there will be many more trips to Mississippi, thank goodness for family.

 Tate and Uncle Scott

 Grady, Tate, Cooper, Garret & Hayden (she was not very happy when I set her down as you can see)

 Hayden's sweet cousins gave her an extra car like this and she has LOVED it!

 Playing at her cousins

What a cute bunch!

Business Trip

Paul left on his 1st business trip since we moved to Georgia yesterday and he doesn't come back until late Wednesday night and then goes to work early Thursday morning.  It is never fun when he is gone.  I thought all this was behind us when we left the Air Force.  I am always fine during the day, but it's at night when I get lonely.  Anyway, yesterday I was fortunate enough to have plans for the Super Bowl which took up a big chunk of the day.  I met my friends Cameron and Britney Mount (from grad school) at their friends home and had such a great time.  There were about 15+ kids there and Hayden had a blast with all the toys and people.  She is so hard to predict.  At church she is terribly shy and will barely look at people and then I take her to a complete strangers home and she walks right in and starts playing with everyone.  Who knows??? 

Today I went to the dentist and for the first time in forever got a bad report!  Apparently I have early signs of gum disease and I need an oral care tooth brush and I have to start using some kind of mouth rinse!  They kept saying, I just need to start flossing daily and I kept saying, "I am a daily floss-er!!!" I really do because I worked as a dental assistant for a few months and that is enough to scare anyone into daily flossing.  At least I had no cavities right?  I left Hayden with a woman from my ward and from the time she left the kids to come to the door they had found markers and had drawn all over their clothes and faces!  I couldn't get a good picture of Hayden because she kept moving around and then my camera died.  Here is the only one I got.  She loves markers, so I'm sure there will be much more of this to come!

Mystery Solved

So a little less than a year ago we realized we had misplaced our car remote starter.  We had this added to our pilot when we bought it because we had no garage in Cheyenne and it was freezing for 10 months of the year.  I may have lost it even earlier but did not realize it because it was summer.  Anyway, once we discovered it was gone, I searched the house high and low.  Went through every jacket pocket and pair of pants I could find and could never locate it.  I hoped we would discover it's whereabouts when we packed, but to no avail we did not.  We endured cold Indiana temperatures again without a garage and the cost of a replacement being over $100 for the remote starter I just kept putting it off hopeful we would find it.

Any of you who know Paul, also know his innate ability to misplace things.  After the remote starter went missing for so long I couldn't help but blame Paul.  After all, most things that went missing we eventually discovered had been lost by Paul.  Well, just this past Saturday when we were organizing the garage and hanging our bikes up, I went inside to get a jacket because I was a little chilly.  I got one that I don't wear much anymore because I was all dirty.  All of the sudden I felt something big in my pocket and reached inside only to discover our missing item!  I was so excited, but the the reality hit me that I had been blaming Paul for something I misplaced for months!  Oooops!  I apologized all day long and now I don't think I will ever be able to say he lost something.  I just can't believe I never checked or felt it in that jacket.  I seriously went through each jacket one by one several time.  Maybe Paul planted it...

Definitely not my best picture, but oh what a happy day!