ALMOST CHRISTMAS!

I am in such a great mood just thinking that in two weeks we will be visiting with family and having a break from work! I can't wait for Hadley to all her extended family again! It has been since the summer, and she has changed so much! She is such a mover- scooting everywhere and getting into everything. It is so fun! She loves cords, ribbons, everything that is dangerous to a baby- she wants it!

I am so excited to meet some new family additions this year! My sister in law had a baby girl in January, and she and Hadley will be great friends since they are only 3 months apart! We get to meet her and I have been busy making them matching outfits.

My sister, Erin, is about to have a baby (due in a week, but we hope she comes sooner). So Hadley will have a girl cousin on each side that is close to her age. She is so lucky! I sure hope that baby comes soon. If she doesn't I might not get to see them at Christmas. A mother of a brand new baby might not be up to traveling that soon!

Here is an update on us...we have some pretty exciting things that are in the works!

Chris got a job in Alburqueque. Although that is a horrible city to spell, it has some nice outdoor activities to offer. That was an adjustment moving to where we are now. It has very few outdoor activities. New Mexico will be an adjustment, I am sure, as we were sure we would stay in Texas. But we will be able to get a house in the near future, and I may be able to snowboard again as well as use my bike, rollerblades, and a number of other things. I look forward to taking some camping trips and hiking. I wont lie- it will be nice to have some mountains again. Although plains have beauty and serenity as well!

Our sweet Hadley is almost 8 months! She is an expert scooter and she will be crawling very soon, I am sure. She loves to put everything in her mouth! She loves her baby food, and makes the most excited noises as she opens her mouth to eat it! She babbles and has the sweetest sounding voice (at least to us she does). She is also getting some top teeth. They haven't quite cut through, but I can feel that they are right there! She also loves to eat her socks! She is an expert at pulling them off. She eats them so much that when I take them away they are so wet I could wring them out! Yuck! And it has been cold here! She needs to keep socks on !

Hadley is getting a bit more hair on her head, too. Most people say now that she looks like Chris. I know that her eyes and eyebrows do. What do you think? Who does she look more like?

Halloween

Well, Halloween came and went for us. Just like that. We weren't able to make it to our friends' pumpkin carving party and we weren't motivated enough to do it on our own. But we will next year when we know Hadley will be able to enjoy getting all messy. We did attend the ward party, but Hadley is such a lightweight, that our little bunny rabbit got so tired that we left at 7:30. We barely got any pictures of her.

This last week she got her first shots. Many people are suprised that she is almost 7 months old and just now getting her first shot. But that is how we do things (No, we were not slacking. We have our reasons). She screamed and turned bright red when she got stuck. I was holding her arms down and she gave me this look like I betrayed her. Chris was there to be the comforter while I was the bad guy who let them stick her. And then I had to go back to work and Chris was stuck at home the rest of the day with a very cranky baby.

Seriously, Chris and Hadley are buddies. She is such a daddy's girl. He spends so much time with her and plays all sorts of games with her. He tells me what she is doing that is new and he tries to help teach her to scoot and crawl. He even tries to teach her to say Da-Da. I never hear him trying to teach her to say Ma-Ma. Only Da-Da. He is just so close to her. I love it!

Hadley happy - caught on video!

Fall Pictures!

My Little Cheerleader

Well, today was a pretty good day. One main reason. It was the last away game on a Saturday that I coach until soccer starts after Christmas! My Saturdays will be partially mine again! For a while!

Hadley comes to the home games most Tuesdays and Saturdays. This way Chris gets some time to study. He also does laundry and cleans house these days. Our roles have somewhat swapped. But it works for us right now. If it were up to me with my schedule it wouldn't get done right now. He is such a great help!

Hadley comes to most home games and a few away ones. I have some great mommies in the stands that hold her and care for her. And my athletes are such big helps too! They even offer to change diapers and don't get upset when Hadley barfs all in their hair. Today while I was coaching a game I looked in the stands and Hadley was in one of the girls' arms as she was pacing back and forth with her keeping her happy. Hadley usually doesn't mind being passed around. They even call dibs on her!

I love these pictures her at the games 'cheering' for us. She is wearing one of the outfits that one of the mommies got her. They keep her looking nice and try to limit the amount of pink that she wears. I guess I was dressing her in a lot of pink.

And she even does a good job taking naps here and there during the games!

It makes me happy to have her there, and I like that she goes to other people so happily. And now it will make me happy to have more time with her on the weekends.

This picture above is her classic look- with all her fingers in her mouth. I told my athletes that she looks like this when she is nervous because the girls aren't winning.

Watch Out! She Bites!

Wow. Babies do grow too fast! Hadley now has two little chompers on the bottom. She looks like such a sweet angel- but the other night when Daddy tried to put her down to sleep she got angry and lunged. She bit him! I wouldn't believe it, but my sister, Alyssa, who came to visit, agreed. She was here to witness. Where did she learn this?


My sweet sister, Alyssa was driving with my brother and some friends from Kentucky back to California a little less than two weeks ago. They stopped in to stay the night since they were only about an hour and a half away one evening. I was so excited! Well, Alyssa and I got to talking and we thought it would be fun for her to stay for awhile. She just left today, but she got to spend a lot of time with Hadley. And I must say, Hadley loved her! Alyssa made her laugh so much, and we even had to talk to Alyssa a bit about spoiling the baby too much! But every baby deserves a little spoiling now and then- right?

Alyssa and I actually got to have a day out to ourselves also! We played mini-golf here in Lubbock and got to enjoy some quality sister time!

And as for Chris and I we are plugging along. We live for the weekends- when we have a little bit of family time. With Alyssa here we actually got out and went on two dates! (Actually, I missed Hadley a lot during the second one because I hadn't gotten to be with her much due to work). I am now half way done with the coaching of one sport for the year. The more demanding of the two.

Some new things with the baby that we are having fun with here:

-Outdoors. Hadley loves to be outside. That is always the quick fix to grumpiness. Alyssa and Hadley spent a lot of time on a blanket outside on the lawn.

-Her new fun center on loan from Marissa (our friend who watches her). Her favorite is the musical keys that she hits to make noise and light up.

-Watching Hadley try to crawl. I don't think it will be too soon just yet, but it isn't too far off, either!

-Eating baby food! She started on some rice cereal a few weeks back, but mostly just in the bottle. We have done baby food for a few days now, and Hadley gets real excited to eat it! It is nasty when she pukes that up, though!

Back to the Real World...

Wow- do I miss summer! But reality has to return sometime, right? Well, since my life is not that fascinating right now I don't have a lot to write. It consists of working, working more, sneaking off for my lunch break to feed and visit with Hadley for an hour. But not to complain, because this is what I have wanted for a very long time! But, my baby is just much more interesting to write about than I am.

Hadley is now nearing five months. People have told me many times before that babies grow way to fast. I truly do feel that I have cherished every moment so far, but I never realized truly how fast they do grow. I just start getting excited about one aspect of her growth and development and then it passes and she moves on to something new.

She had her blessing day at church the last weekend of August. Chris' parents came in from Colorado to spend time with us and attend. I had games out of town that I had to coach- so Chris got more time with them, but it was really enjoyable to just have family here again. And Hadley really enjoyed playing with her Grandma Lisonbee. She wore a dress that my mom smocked and I sewed. I have yet to really learn to smock. But it looked lovely, and Hadley didn't cry during her blessing. She was pretty good. I have had requests to get those pictures posted ASAP.

Hadley changes so much, and each day I marvel that she is ours!

Right now she grabs her feet and just about gets them into her mouth. She LOVES to roll over and when she gets on her stomach and I can see she is trying to get her bum up into crawling position.

She still loves her baths. She can be in a horrible mood and then a bath makes everything wonderful again. She loves to kick and splash and try to catch drops of water in her mouth. I have to watch her head carefully because she tries to turn to the side and get to the water to sip some.

She has a little bumbo seat that she sits in while I get dinner ready and just whenever she needs to sit up. She loves it! She looks like such a big girl sitting up in her seat, looking around and grabbing things off the floor.

Hadley loves our little mirror game we go through before her bath, too. The smiles we get out of this are some of the best ever! We just hold her in front of the mirror- all undressed for her bath. We ask who that cute baby is and she stomps her feet on the counter like she is dancing and laughs and giggles. She likes to see herself in the mirror. And I like to see her smiles and hear her giggles from it.