Graduation Photos

Graduation pics from a few weeks ago!

Living Out of Boxes

Chris graduated and is now about to start his classes for the bar. I will have to have him put up some pictures of graduation because he has them all. It was a special time, and we were lucky that his folks could come out and share it. Hadley had a lot of fun with them as well. Grandma Lisonbee loves to get right down on the floor and play with Hadley, and it is so great to see all the constant smiles.

Hadley and I have been a little lonely here since Chris left on Monday. She crawls around the bed when we get home looking for her best friend. He has spent so much time taking care of her that they have become best buddies. She has been crying with our friends who take care of her. We thought she must be getting sick since we can't get her to stop, and she pulls her ears and hits herself on the head, so I took her to Urgent Care last night. I thought she must have an ear infection. But they said she is as healthy as can be. Teething might be a factor here, but I think she is having a hard time without Chris. At least tonight she perked up when she heard his voice on the phone. Actually today was a better day overall. I got off work a little early, so Hadley and I came home and had a snack and then went swimming at our apartment pool. If felt SO GREAT! And Hadley was trying to get out of her floatie to get more in the water. It was difficult when I held her because she squirmed so much trying to escape my grasp. She was ready to go off and swim! Only problem is she would sink. I kept trying to have her get her face out of the water. She stuck her head down into it and wanted to drink it like she always tries (and often does) in the tub. This girl is going to love swimming lessons once I get her into them! She has no fear of the water. I took her out a minute and she ran right for the edge- ready to jump in!

And now I am actually looking forward to this next and last week of work. A bit sad to leave, but last week I got a ticket (I have not had one for probably close to 5 years) for 7 over as I sped up to cut across traffic. I am stunned that I actually recieved a ticket for 7 over. Seriously? So I have a bit less love now for the City of Lubbock. We shall see what Albuquerque holds for us. Almost everyone here in Lubbock loves it- except for the little food sample lady at the grocery store who was trying to convince me to buy some microwaveable rice. She made a very sour face when I told her I was moving there and said, "I DO NOT like Albuquerque." I'll get back to you and how I feel about it after the summer.

These pictures are random for this post, but they make me laugh. Hadley had about two weeks where she cruised the house never letting for of some item. One day it was the "Butt Paste" and another- as captured in these photos was the oragel. Actually, the oragel was carried around for so many days that it is looking very worn out now for a little hand constantly grasping it. I couldn't find it for a bit- and guess where it was? In her bed! She hardly uses it, but apparently likes to sleep holding it. It was getting to worn looking so we snuck it away.

And The Countdown Begins

I now have 20 days (that is 4 weeks) until I am done with this job! I have been so lucky to have gotten it as soon as we got here, and it overall has done me well. I got to coach- a lot. I even coached a sport I knew very little about previously. Volleyball. While I gained more respect and knowledge of the sport, I have decided I still don't care for it. Watching it on t.v. during the olympics will be about as far as I go.

I will get to spend more time with my baby girl! And speaking of that baby girl- she is getting to be a little toddler. She walks a lot now- and everyday it is more. She can turn as she is walking, and she gets upright into a standing position just fine now with no support. She eats great- just about anything, and has a ton of teeth! She has a molar coming in, which I know is giving her a lot of pain. I think this is tooth #10. She bites sometimes and thinks it is funny. We don't laugh, but she will toddle over and gently bite our knee. Usually we pull away fast enough, tell her no, and move her away from us and the most we get is a slobber mark. And she smiles and thinks it fun. Well, last night she walked over to me and without anywarning took a taste of my shin. OUCH! Well, I yelped and gave her a little flick on the mouth and said no. She was screaming and crying all over the place and I pulled up my pants and sure enough- a little bite size bruise was forming. Well, I doubt that will be the end of the biting, but she didn't even attempt it today on either Chris or I.

On a happier note, we took her to the park today- there was a break in the crazy windiness here and we knew she needed to get out. I have been sick this weekend so I pretty much laid around while she played indoors. As soon as we pulled up to the park she started kicking her legs with excitement. We pulled her out of the car and Chris put her upon her shoulders and she was squealing with delight! She loves getting outdoors and going to the park. Even though the only thing she really likes is the swing and trying to eat pebbles. I think we got some great pictures today that shows how happy she is at the park.

As for our happy little family- Chris' finals are upon him and graduation will soon be here. Our little apartment is in boxes, and we will hopefully be moving into a house before the year is over! I am really excited to start house hunting once we move!

One Year Portraits!

Our good friend took Hadley's portraits for us (she also took her 6 month ones). It was the day before her birthday, and while the wind wasn't very cooperative, we got some great ones! I look forward to hanging up some of these in our new house when we buy one in Albuquerque. Hadley wasn't that happy during them until we gave her cake, so I thought we didn't get many good ones, but it turned out that we did! I was so pleased!

At a year old Hadley walks a few steps up to 6 at a time! She still prefers to crawl, though. She likes to share our food- especially Daddy's yogurt!

Hadley loves the outdoors, although she is not that interested in parks yet.

Our little sweet pea sleeps through the night, from about 7 to 7. She has attached herself to two soft purple blankets, and it is so cute to see her hold the corners of them.

She knowingly says ma-ma, da-da, and ba-ba. Even though she is off a bottle. Ba-ba means sippy cup, too.

She loves to drink out of straws! She is really good at it, and has been doing it for months. She drinks so much sometimes that she has problems wetting through clothes.

Hadley can put the circle blocks into her shape-sorter like a pro. We are working on the squares, but she still is so stuck on the circles!

She enjoys clapping, jumping up from her knees into the air and screaming, trying to sneak into our bedroom, and making all sorts of goofy noises with her mouth.

She has a good appetite and eats most anything.

This little girl is the light of our lives!

Birthday Party!

We had a nice birthday get together for Hadley on Saturday. I took Friday off so I could be with her more and bake her cake. I made some snacks and the cake on Friday, ran errands, and got to play lots with Hadley. Then on Sunday Hadley and I went to the park- the same one again where he party was held. We tried out her new bucket and shovel and the swings. It was so much fun. During her party some friends tried to take her on the swings but they were so hot that she cried and came back all red and sweaty. So Sunday was an overcast day. She loved it all, and during the moment that I took my eyes off her to turn on the camera she started to eat sand. I noticed the corner of the her mouth had grass and a few pieces of sand.

Hadley ate her half of cupcake pretty quickly. There wasn't much on the ground or on her tray. Then she reached over to the table trying to get more! I think she has a sweet tooth! We weren't sure how she would react since she hasn't had hardly any sugar- but a little taste of our ice cream once or twice. But there was no doubt- she loved it!

She was too busy with her cupcake to look at the camera and smile.

She never put that cupcake down or let a piece fall. She held it the whole time and inhaled it!

Here is a picture of the cake. It is supposed to be a giant cupcake, but I thought it looked a bit like a basket of flowers. I made some small cupcakes for the kiddos.Opening presents. So far she is loving her trucks that were here in the picture. She was actually interested in a lot of it as we opened them. So thoughtful!

Hadley is really happy here. It may be hard to tell. She liked swinging by herself, and when she gets really excited she scrunches up her face with her big toothy grin (she has a HUGE gap between the front two teeth. HUGE as in scary huge). And she puts her hands in front of her mouth and squeals. SO CUTE!

Hadley was sampling the blackberries that I was using for the fruit platter on her birthday. I think we could say she likes them!

It's a Birthday Girl!

Today is Hadley's birthday. My heart is swelled with love and pride for my little girl. I had so much fun celebrating this little life with my friends here in Lubbock. I always tell Hadley, "I always wanted you." Since I was a young child I knew I wanted to be a mommy someday. My mother did daycare- so there were always babies and children in the home. I grew up enjoying children and helping to care for them. Even when going to college and unmarried I still felt a longing to have a baby (just needed to find the man). Quickly after we got married I started talking to Chris about it. I am glad we got to have time together, but I think he did get sick of me crying to him about it. We would come home from church and I would cry- literally cry because I saw all the babies and felt an absence within myself that I didn't have one.

I was made to be a mommy. Pregnancy was not tough on me. I loved being pregnant- it felt so magical to me! And I had been wanting this for a long time! I liked seeing myself get bigger and feeling the baby move was watching a miracle in action. I was so excited when Hadley came, but it also was a bit nostalgic- there was a big part of me that I couldn't return to!

And now my little baby is a year old! She still lacks in the hair department. I look forward to putting bows in her hair- if she will let me! At one year old she is almost 19 pounds. She is in the 25th percentile for weight and 50th for weight. She has been in this part of the spectrum consistently for quite a while now. She started life pretty scrawny, and stayed it for a few months. Around 5 months she started to chub up some. Now she has cute chubby legs! She is walking a but- mostly with our prodding, but sometimes she does it on her own. It is usually just a few steps.

I have experienced a lot in the last year. The hardest thing is working a job with more than full time hours. I teach high school Spanish and coach volleyball and soccer. Coaching takes a ton of time- as most of the schools that we play are between 2-3.5 hours of driving distance each way! My evenings and weekends were shot- and many days I left her before she woke up and came home after she was in bed. It is no wonder that the first thing she said was, "Da-da." And it continues to be her favorite word. She rarely says my name. I have been fortunate to come home or to the sitter's almost every day to feed her. Now that I am done breastfeeding I only make it 3-4 days. But this was more difficult than I can describe. I am fortunate that next year I will be staying home. I will never take that for granted. One of my deepest desires is to stay home with my child and take care of her myself and the house. I know that there are many people who can't do this who also want to. I can't wait to teach my sweet girl more about Jesus, sharing, books, etc.

As I reflect on the last year I have leared many things. As I mentioned, I was around babies a ton. Most things about babies didn't surprise me and I can honestly say I knew mostly what to expect. I assisted my older sister with her baby from birth- helping to care for her during the day when she worked and at night sometimes when she went to classes for her Masters Degree. But there are some things I can do now that I never could before:

1. I can pick a boogie of a baby with my bare fingers. Yes, I still gag a bit at this. I still cringe as I reach in. But I can do it. It took quite a few months- I used to HAVE to have a tissue. But now if none is available I can still take care of it.

2. I can multi-task SO much better! I never considered myself lacking in this skill, but now I am amazing!

3. I can live on little amounts of sleep. All through college I made sure to get enough sleep. I get really bad migranes when I don't. But now I can go on like 4 hours and still function. Not for more than a day, but the fact that I can still function is a feat in itself.

4. This one is a big one. So- I read all sorts of books when pregnant about what my body was going through. I read quite a bit about baby's sleeping habbits, and tried to learn how to help them be good sleepers. Hadley started off sleeping pretty well. The first night I let her sleep without waking her to feed her she slept about 6 hours straight. All through last summer she slept from about 7:30 or 8pm to about 8am with usually just one wakening during the night. Usually between 4:30 or 5, and then she would go back down no problem. Being the prideful person I am, I thought, "Wow. I am good. These books are good. I followed the instructions and my baby sleeps wonderfully." Life was good. Hadley wasn't even tough to put down. No rocking, nothing.

Then the first day I went back to work she stopped sleeping like that and it all went downhill drastically. Now she has recently been sleeping straight from 7-7 without wakenings. But she has had MANY nights that have kept us up- to say the least. And I still manage to get up and go to work (once in a while with the help of an asprin).

5. They DO grow to fast. When Hadley was born a visitor came over said, "Wow, you forget how small the come." I looked at my baby and thought- no way. I will NEVER forget this. I will savor it, tuck it away and remember it always." Well, now I see new babies (often ones who start life bigger than Hadley did) and I think the same thing!

Of course, I have learned many more things than these. But these are some of the things that jump out and that cross my mind often.

Hadley in the hospital just a few days old. I loved her perfect little lips! They are shaped like Chris'.
My sleeping angel at about 1 month. Now I can't get her to keep on a hat.

In this picture Hadley was nearing 2 months- but not quite there yet! She was smaller than anticipated at birth- so her clothes were too big at first. But a friend sent us some of these sleeper outfits. She lived in them for the first 6-8 weeks!

Hadley was 3 months here! I made this outfit for her when I first found out I was having a girl!

Hadley was 4 months here. We were in Dallas during the summer. I thought this shirt was so cute when I found it!

Big girl was 5 months in this picture! I loved the stage when she grabbed her feet and ate her toes! SO CUTE!

Ahhh- six months in this picture. I love her big blue eyes and so does everyone who sees her! She truly looks like a sweet angel here!

Seven months old and being tickled by Daddy! Hadley wasn't very smiley in the beginning. Her smiles were few and far between until about 7 months. And now Daddy can ALWAYS make her smile!

Christmas came and my girl was 8 months! Hadley enjoyed the paper on her presents. She even got a cousin this month- 8 months apart to the day!

Hadley was 9 months here and being silly! Chris says that tongue is like a lizard's!

Hadley was ten months here. This was a fun time because she was becoming sillier. One of her favorite things to do (and it still is) was to get into laundry after we had just washed it out and started to fold and put them over her or in her mouth. Socks were usually the preferred item!

Eleven months here and the shirt says it all! I DO thank heaven for this little girl!

Twelve months to the day here and loving her cake! She ate the half of a cupcake I gave her and was grabbing at the table trying to get more! Looks like we have a sweet tooth! More birthday pictures will come!