Moments I Won't Ever Forget...

This is Tony again making my one contribution of the year...

Just wanted to share with everyone...and document for my own personal memories some things Hailey has done or said to me in the last few months. These are things that I don't want to ever forget about this part of her life.

Lunch Preparations...

Hailey has always had a thing for "helping" me pack my lunch in the morning. Her goal is to ensure I have "something" prepared so that I am not hungry during lunch. She has tossed some pretty random things in my bag but one morning I decided to just let her pack the entire lunch and see what I ended up with.

I ended up with three (THREE) sour cherry balls in a zip lock freezer bag all nice and zipped up and stuck in my briefcase. She was VERY proud of what she put together for me that I couldnt tell her what I was really thinking. I showed everyone at work that day who thought it was pretty cute.

The Weather Channel...

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I watch The Weather Channel non stop (when I have control of the TV which is rare). When I do watch, Hailey seems to watch with me a little bit and frequently asks me what the greens and reds mean on the radar display. I of course, like to answer those questions!

It was a proud moment for me when, last night, while driving to see April in the hospital Hailey looked outside at the rain coming down and said..."boy, I sure am glad we watched The Weather Channel" so we knew it was going to rain"

I appear to be wearing off on her....

The Money Tree...

We received a Fisher Price toy magazine/ad in the mail the other day and I asked Hailey if she wanted anything specific from it. She of course said she wanted everything in the magazine. I said I can't afford to buy EVERYTHING in the magazing. She told me "sure you can, you have a job don't you" (hands on her hips). She has a point, but I dont think I am quite at the point where I can buy EVERYTHING!

Candy Land Cheater...

Hailey is officially a Candy Land cheater! She has figured out how to carefully arrange the deck of cards so that some of the "best" cards are pulled by her. She loves the one that puts her ALL THE WAY toward the end of course and consistently plants that one as the second card (Lisa or I go first of course). So, the first card she draws is the one that basically puts her at the end on the first shot. Pretty convenient....

The Little Girl...

This one actually chokes me up a little bit. This is the first summer where Hailey has spent A LOT of time out in the neighborhood with friends she has met. The other day, I went out to get her to call her inside as it was getting a little late. I saw her at our neighbor's house in the driveway sitting cross legged next to her friend Maddie (who was sitting the same way) and they were just having a conversation and carrying on like they were dealing with "life" in general.

I just let them be...

That was one of those moment's for me where I really looked at Hailey and realized that she was getting "older" and transitioning into a new phase of her life. Makes you think about how fast time really does fly by.

Those are just a few things I wanted to share with everyone...

our first game of golf

My parents love golf! They play all the time. Last year, they bought Hailey her first set of golf clubs, in a miniature

Hailey-size. She really hadn't used them, except a few "practice" swings here and there. So, they decided to try to take her out for a quick 9 holes on a par 3 more casual course. I was going to go along, just for fun- to watch and take some pics. But, somehow I got talked into playing...And, it was super fun! I really enjoyed it! I am not really any good at it, but I am looking forward to going more often so I can practice my skills!

Hailey did pretty well, but around hole #7, she just wanted to be done... so, she sat down on the green and started eating her cereal!

DORA

Last weekend we took Hailey to see the stage production of Dora the Explorer. She was really excited to go downtown to the theater!

She brought her Dora doll along...

& Daddy bought her a new Diego doll before the show started.

The show was really cute, and much better than I expected! It was so funny to see all of the kids get so into it, and yell things out, to "help" Dora and her friends!

LEMONADE STAND!

Our neighborhood garage sale was held last weekend. We didn't participate, although we should have...could have unloaded a bunch of junk that is taking up space in the garage! Anyway, Hailey's good friend, Maddie set up a lemonade stand at her house during the sale. So, Hailey, and her other friend Brinley helped Maddie with her lemonade stand most of the day. I ran down to take some pictures when they were first getting it set up. They were so dang funny! I think they drank (and spilled) just as much as they sold!

Side note: these pics were taken before we put a up the huge rainbow umbrella -for some shade, and brought down all of our kids chairs for them to lounge in!

They had to be comfortable while they were out selling their lemonade!

Have I mentioned that Hailey loves her neighborhood friends? She is so into all of the girls in the neighborhood! She always wants to be out playing with them! It is so neat to see her starting to establish little friendships! Such a social butterfly!

Daddy's coffee mug

We painted a coffee mug for Tony for Father's Day. Yes, I know it isn't Father's Day yet, but don't worry...this post won't ruin the surprise! Hailey already did that herself. She was so excited that she couldn't wait to give Tony his special hand-painted masterpiece. She told him about it the same day that we picked it up from the studio! Funny girl!

She picked out green for the main color, and blue for the polka dots!

Then, we put a pink hand print on it too!

We had lots of fun (especially since our friends Tara, Bronwyn, & Hayden were there too!)

The finished product...before the firing and glazing.

Estes Park

Last Sunday, we went up to Estes Park for the day.

We did a little sight seeing...

Took a few trips on the GO-Karts...

played a little miniature golf...
rode the bumper cars a couple of times...

We had a really fun day! Hailey's favorite thing was the Go-Karts. She has been talking about them all week, and how she wants to go back to the mountains to go on them again!

Zoo field trip

Hailey had her field trip to the zoo last week. She really enjoyed spending some time at the zoo with her friends from preschool! We walked all over, and viewed lots of animals before having a picnic lunch with her teachers and her friends. Hailey was really sad to say goodbye to all of her friends as she hugged them goodbye one last time!

Hailey with Chloe

Macy, Chloe & Hailey


Picnic Lunch!


with friends, and her teachers
some last hugs for friends...so sad!