Christmas Vacation Pictures

This post is mostly just pictures. There are so many fun ones that we took this Christmas season! It is tough to capture a shot where all the children in a picture are smiling- or even just looking at the camera.


This picture has nothing to do with Christmas. I just thought it was too cute not to post! We know that we are sooo blessed with our little angel (no longer so little- she is getting quite chubby! All this late night snacking)!

Future Best Friends! I love seeing Ashley, one of my best friends in the world when I go home! Her baby, Natalie, was born just about a week after Hadley. The babies really seemed to like eachother. Last time they were just a few months old and Hadley kept trying to eat Natalie.

Chris and a sleepy "Little Santa" on Christmas Eve!

Our first Christmas as a little family!

Hadley didn't cry with Santa! We went to Bass Pro Shops in Colorado. The line was not long, the people were nice, they print out a free photo for you and let you take your own- all for FREE! I was astonished to find out that the malls all charge outrageous fees for you to take your own photo with Santa. Didn't seem so 'Christmasey' to me. Love you Bass Pro Shops!

Saige (on Chris' side) is Hadley's closest cousin in age. They live in Colorado and we were so excited for the girls to meet. They are quite different, and it is funny how obvious it is at such a young age. Hadley is NOT shy at all, while Saige takes some time to warm up to people. They did get used to eachother and had fun playing with eachother's toys. We were hoping Hadley would watch Saige crawl (she is an expert- she is fast!) and get the idea, but nope!

I love this picture! My sweet grandpa is 95, and we had fun posing the great-grandkids with him. He read us the Christmas story on Christmas Eve.

This was take on Christmas Eve. Okay- so the picture looks a little forced. There were distractions!

I wish I had some better photos of the three cousins in their matching outfits that I made them! They were getting sick of the photo taking and the new baby slept through everything anyways.

Hadley is here with my Grandma and Grandpa (my mother's parents). I love my grandparent's enthusiasm for each of the great-grandchildren. It was fun to see them with my 2 week old niece as well!
My folks with their grandchildren. Three grand-daughters: Keiya age 4 1/2, Hadley 8 mo. and Niyah 2 1/2 weeks. Hadley is trying to pull Keiya's hair. She loves to pull hair- good thing I have a tough head!

Cousins! Keiya and Hadley in their matching Christmas dresses! Keiya really is the best big cousin!

This photo has a story behind it. Christmas Day my brother, Jeff and Chris decided to fix up an old school Nintendo set and play with it. They got it working and spent the afternoon playing old games like Super Mario Brothers 3 and Contra. Do you remember those? They were so excited. My favorite thing about this photo? On the right is Hadley, as entranced and the two grown Nintendo-geeks!

Hadley and Keiya here in their jammies that I made them for Christmas. Hadley looks worried- it must have been early in the morning! Hadley is not really a morning person.

Hadley and Chayce, the little daughter of my friend who watches Hadley for us. I made them matching outfits.

We acknowledge our Lord and Savior for all our blessings and for the gift of our baby, family and friends! Most of all, we are grateful for the gift of the Savior and His sacrifice!

We Love The Holidays!

Ahhh, bahumbug! I say that because the holidays are almost over and we will have to go back to school and work. But there are good things that come out of that, too, and one of the best is that is gets us closer to Chris graduating! We will be moving to New Mexico in June and starting a new part of our lives.

Well, for Christmas we have had quite the vacation! The day I finished teaching we packed up the car and drove a long 9 hour drive to Denver, CO. Chris' folks and sister and her family live in Denver and we decided that it would be nice to see his side as well. His siblings were coming out to CO for Christmas, too, but the final factor in this decision for us was that plane tickets to San Diego were a LOT less from Denver than Lubbock. Like hundreds of dollars less!

We were in Denver for a few days and on the 22nd at VERY early in the morning we left for out 6:30 am flight to San Diego, CA. Hadley was wired in the airport. Wide awake and grabbing at everything! She didn't really want to sleep on the flight. Which meant that Chris and I didn't really get to sleep. Well, we were getting used to it at this point.

Early flights like that are no fun, but they do save us money. And they allowed us to spend the 22nd seeing lots of family. So while in San Diego we got to see a lot family and some friends, too! We went to the outlet malls, got some relaxation and better sleep, too! In Colorado, Hadley decided that she was going to wake up every 2 hours. We were sharing a room with her, and she knew it. But in California, we decided to stick her in the room with my sister, Alyssa who is 20 and can sleep through ANYTHING. My little niece, Keiya (age 4) also slept in the room and she also sleeps through anything. So when Hadley fussed she didn't bother anyone. Chris and I were in the next room so that when she really cried we could get up and feed her. But it went close to her regular night schedule with just one or two wakenings at night. It was wonderful!

We left California on the 30th at another 6:30 am flight, and this time Hadley slept some on the plane. After a minor tantrum, of course. We will probably leave Colorado sometime tonight and will look forward to being home again.

Some of my favorite things over the holidays were...spending time with the family and grandparents, too. It is so fun to play games with them and eat Grams' good food! I was so happy to be able to see my two best friends (besides my husband and sisters). Denise came over to visit and we got to see her parents and sister, too. And I LOVE playing games with Ashley and our group of friends. (The pic below is of her baby and Hadley- about a week apart in age- future best friends!) One of my favorite things about going home is getting to play the best game in the WORLD...Settlers of Catan. I even won twice this time! Chris won't play it, so I only really get to play when I go home.

I also enjoyed seeing my new little niece, Niyah. She is so cute, and so small. It was fun to hold a small baby again. And her sister, Keiya who is four and a half was so fun to watch play with Hadley. I liked getting to eat red cabbage (a family favorite), turkey and all the yummy Christmas treats. It was fun to see Hadley's facial expressions change with everything going on. I think that baby has gotten even fatter over the break! She is quite a chunker! I thought for sure she would start crawling over the break, but not quite. She does try. She gets up on all fours and even lunges. She has done a full arm and foot crawl on one side, but then she falls and rolls over to her back. She is so funny! It is so much fun to be around her and see all her attempts and growths. Even the not so positive ones- like realizing that she can get slap-happy past her bed time and stay up a little longer. That can be annoying, but so funny at the same time!

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.