Christmas Time is Here!

Wow, i cant believe i havent given any updates since halloween!! I am so sorry. We are doing great and keeping very busy, as I am sure you are doing as well with this time of the year!

Hailey is reall having a ball with this Christmas and it has really just gotten started :) She is so funny about opening up presents and does it so delicately!! She even likes to hand out everyone elses first! We are so excited for this year and know it is going to be a lot of fun!! I have been holding on to her present since September... so I am def READY to give it to her!!

I uploaded a lot of pictures for you to enjoy. There are two albums, one of just Christmas and the other is of her since October :)

I hope you have a great Christmas and Santa brings you everything on your list ;)

16/17 MO

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Merry Christmas!!!!

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Meals Mommy Makes

I had a lot of fun doing "Menu Monday" but as you can see I didn't keep up with it every Monday! So I have decided to start doing "Meals Mommy Makes" so that I can share it with you when I find great recipes, anytime, and when I have time! :)
Below are few recipes that I have cooked lately and the have be FABULOUS!! My new favorite things to cook are slow cooker items and meals that I can make extra of and freeze. So these are the best from what I have been cooking lately :)

EASY POT ROAST AND VEGGIES
*I am always looking for different varieties of Pot Roast. I found this one and added a few of my own ingredients and one that was a suggestion from the grocery store. Put them all together and this was "the best pot roast you have ever cooked" -the hubby!
6 servings
3-4lb, chuck roast
4 med. size potatoes, cubed
4 med. size carrots, sliced or 1lb baby carrots
2 celery ribs, sliced, optl (i left out and added bell pepper)
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
3 cups water (this is where i substituted the ingrd from the store, 1 can beefy mushroom)
PUT poat roast, potatoes, carrots, and celery in slow cooker
ADD onion soup mix and water (soup)
COVER and cook on low 6-8 hours.

CREAMY COOKER CHICKEN
*We just had this one tonight and the chicken was literally falling apart! You can serve over rice or noodles to make this a complete meal, or pair you favorite veggies with it to make a wholesome meal!
6 Servings
1 envelope dry onion soup (works great bc comes in a two pack!)
2 cups sour cream
10 3/4 oz can cream of mushroom soup
6 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
COMBINE soup mix, sour cream, and cream of mushroom soup in slow cooker.
ADD chicken pushing it down so it is submerged in the sauce
COVER cook on low 8 hours

HOMINY TACO CHILI
*Here is a great spin on the traditional "colds night" dinner. The extra ingredients in this dish make it burst with flavor!! I would make it every week if Dustin would let me :) And it also freezes great!
4 Servings
1lb ground beef/turk
1 onion, chopped
1 can hominy, drained
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 sml can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can pinto beans, rinsed and drained (i opt out)
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained (i opt out)
1 cup water
1 envlp taco seasoning
1 envlp ranch dressing mix
1/2 tspn garlic salt
1/2 tspn pepper
Corn chips, optional, serve with

COOK beef and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink. drain, stir in the next 11 ingredients
BRING to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 mins. Serve half of the chili with corn chips if desired.
FREEZE remaining chili in a freezer container for up to 3 months.

CHEDDAR POTATO CHOWDER
*This is one of Dustins favorite dishes and so good even after frozen (up to 3 months) It is also a great dish to have around the holidays because you can use left over ham in this recipe!
6 Servings
2 cups water
2 cups diced unpeeled red potatoes
1 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup celery
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups milk (2%)
2 cups (8 oz) shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese
1 cup cubbed fully cooked lean ham
COMBINE the first seven ingredients (on stove top) Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10/12 mins or until veggies are tender
MEANWHILE place flour in a lg saucepan, gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat. Add cheese, stir until melted. Stir the ham an dht cheese sauce into undrained vegetables until combined.

CHEESY SPAGHETTI BAKE
*Another one of Dustins faves! This is a spin on the traditional spaghetti dish! It is very light with the tomato soup, but very heart and filling. This meal also freezes great for up to 3 months, just double everything and make all at one time!
6 servings
1lb uncooked spaghetti, broken into 3 inch pcs
1 1/2 to 2lbs ground turk/beef
onion, chopped
green pepper, chopped
1 cup milk (or 2 if you want a creamy sauce)
1 can tomato soup
1 can cream of mushroom
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
COOK spaghetti according to pckg directions. Drain and place in tow greased 13x9x2 baking dishes, set aside
COOK the beef, onions and green pepper over med. heat until meat i no longer pink, drain. Add to pot, milk, tomato soup, mushroom soup and 1 cup cheese. Bring to a boil.
SPOON over spaghetti (will absorb during baking) Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
BAKE, uncovered, at 350 for 40-45 mins or until bubbly and top is lightly browned.

Well I guess this makes up for the weeks I have been missing now!! I hope that you are able to use some of these recipes and you family loves them as much as we do!!

ENJOY!

~**~NICOLE~**~

Santa Pictures

hey There!
I have kept myself pretty busy lately, and apologize for not posting many updates as to what is going on in our lives! My Photography has picked up and I am having a lot of fun doing that :)

I am going to be hosting Santa Pictures on December 4th! I am very excited about this opportunity! Such fun to see kids with Santa. If you are interested (or if you dont have kids or if they are too old, please pass along to your friends!)then please check out my website for details
www.nicolefloydphotography.com under "Santa's Coming"
packages range from $15-50!!

thanks :)

$100 Visa Gift Card Giveaway

Head over to This Mama Rocks and enter to win a $100 Visa GC! What a great thing to receive just in time for the holidays. I don't know anyone that would turn down a chance at winning $100! Follow the link below:
http://thismamablogrocks.blogspot.com/2010/11/100-visa-gift-card-giveaway.htm
Good Luck :)

Leading up to Halloween :)

We have been up to a lot of activites lately with Halloween :) here are a few pics from it :)and of course I can't wait to load the ones of our little black kitten after trick or treating tonight :D

Halloween Part 1

Having Fun

We went and visited Granny and Dadpa and Hailey had so much fun!! She always loves to go up there and visit them :) She got to feed the fish and play with all their toys. She loves to have Gran Gran read her books, she will just sit in her lap and flip pages with her.. it is so sweet :) This time she found a baby doll they had and was carrying it around everywhere! She would hug it and kiss it and pull it real close to her! She even wanted to read the book with her :)
I bought a craft for me and Hailey to do together! It is a wooden wall hanger with pumpkins. It had a place to put her name and everything. I thought this would be fun and special for her. So once she woke up from her nap, I took her outside and started the painting!! She looked like a natural with the paint brush in her hand :) She even helped me paint her name on it... which is why the letters are so straight and jagged ;) We had a lot of fun and now it is hanging up right outside her room!
Everyone have a great weekend!

Having Fun

Finger Painting

I forgot to post the picture of my proud display on the fridge... haileys first finger painting! :D

16 Months Old

Hailey has now turned 16 months old! WOW!! She has hit such a fun age and is just a joy to be around... except of course the few days that those dreaded molars were coming in :( She has such a personality and is just a ham! She is constantly making us laugh at the things that she does :) She now LOVES our Camaro since she has had a ride in it, and ask Daddy everytime they are outside together. So it is now a Friday treat for them to go on a ride in the neighborhood together! She also LOVES for her Daddy to get in her tent with her! The tent is pretty spacious.. .but it is def. a funny sight to see! lol Last Sunday we got to go and meet our newest addtion to the family for the Bagwell side, Gracie! She was such an adorable little baby. She sleeps so well! Hailey hasn't been around to many babies, especially teeny tiny ones like her... so she wasn't quite sure? haha. She ignored her at first and just played with toys, but once we finally showed her to Gracie, she was giving her kisses! It was very sweet :) She had a lot of fun at Hunter and Gracie's house!

Baby Gracie

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Fall is def. one of my favorite times of the year, because the house starts getting decorated!! Went we and got some pumpkins for the front porch and HB loved picking them out. She even pointed to one of the small ones and said "this" (of course!) and carried it around the whole time. She even wanted it to be part of our display outside :) I can't wait for pumpkin carving and Halloween costumes!! It is going to be so much fun :)

pumpkin pickin

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Since she is getting to be such a big girl, I decided to take some cute little pictures of her and have sort of a mini photo session! She wasn't quite up for it, but we did have some fun. She looked so cute in her little tutu and flowered hat! I even put some cowgirl boots on in the end, and she was adorable if I do say so myself :) I am having so much fun being a mom and feel truly blessed with the beautiful and loving child that God has given us!! (I also threw in some cute bath pictures! everyone loves those ;) )

16 mo mini session

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As for me and Dustin, we have been keeping busy as well. His work is going very good! And I am starting to get a little busier with my photography! I am def. having fun with it and it doesn't seem like work when you are persuing your passion :) I am very excited that I will be doing Santa picutres this year!!! So if you would like your kids to see Santa or know someone that would, please tell them to give me a call or visit my website for details and pricing :)
http://www.nicolefloydphotography.com/santas-coming.html

I hope everyone is doing well :)
Have a great week and hope to update you soon :)

Side Walk Chalk

Last week when it was so nice outside and not so hot, we started hanging out there a little more after dinner. Hailey got some side walk chalk for her birthday, and I finally decided to bust it out ;) haha. She had so much fun doing it, and started drwaing right away!! She was a MESS!!!!!! I can not stress this enough! She literally had it from HEAD to TOE!! But it was absolutely adorable, and she was making me laugh. We def. had to have a bath after this one! Dad had some fun and drew a body around her and she actually did really well laying there! It was a great family fun night!

Side Walk Chalk

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We are still alive!!

So I promised in my last blog that I WAS going to be better at blogging... well as you can see, I didn't hold up to that promise :/ So here I am to update you on what's been going on (since August!!) We have been looking forward to the month of September for a long time, because it meant football (which I am VERY disappointed!!!) and Pigeon Forge.. our two FAVORITE things... and FALL!! We Made our way to Pigeon Forge the middle of September and were hoping for cooler fall air..well it was still HOT! But we did have a great time. I got some really cute pic of our precious girl, and we shopped, ate great food, and Hailey even visited her first amusement park, which she LOVED!!! She pitched the biggest fit when it was time to leave, I had to divert her attention to getting to ride in the BIG truck! :)We found a HUGE pumpkin at Dollywood (they always have the best decorations!) and stopped to take pictures. Hailey was amazed by it and just kept looking up! I got some really cute ones with her lifting her hands towards the sky :) Unfortunately Dustin came down with food poisoning... well what we thought was that, but actually turned out to be more of a stomach virus. He got that Saturday and didnt't get out of the bed (except to drive home) until Tuesday morning when he HAD to go back to work. (sorry for the red eyes in pics... didnt have time to edit)

Pigeon Forge

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The next weekend was my next BIG thing I looked forward to every September... the Consignment Sale at the horse park!! I had presale passes and literally could not wait. I got Hailey some great clothes and shoes, and nothing above 5 bucks!! I always love it there and actually looking fwd to the 50% off days tomorrow where I could potentially find things for $1! I got a few pics of her in the new boots that I got her... as you can tell in the pics, I think she likes them!! I love the one where she is doing the "cat walk" HAHA! She loves her shoes... just like her momma!! ;)



I am so glad that the weather has been so beautiful lately and Hailey is loving playing out in it! We were outside for probably 2 hours today and she still didn't get enough and sucked up to daddy for another hour after dinner ;) haha Halloween is just around the corner and Hailey is going to be a BLACK CAT! how fun :D

Hope everyone is doing well, have a great weekend!!

Church Night Out

Our church so graciously through a thank you party for the volunteers at the church at a local water park. Haiely had so much fun playing and DID NOT want to get out... and was still WIDE OPEN at 8 when we finally made her get out!! There was a lot of cloud cover and it was freezing when you were wet out not all the way in the water. She was shivering and had blue lips and still just a going at it! haha. Dustin took pics for us, so sorry, but some are blurry ;)

Water Park

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Beach Trip.. lost pics :)

haha! JK ;) here are the pictures that have been stuck on my old camera! Dustin wouldn't let me use my new one too much on the beach, so these are the ones that were of us on the beach :) (only a month late!)

Beach trip 2

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For those of you still hanging on!!

I will have to admit that I have been pretty slack about keeping updates on the blog this summer... I took full advantage of the relaxation!!... well actually of keeping busy!! We have had such a great summer and did all kinds of fun things... one being Hailey's first birthday.. and I STILL cant believe it!! She had her first beach trip too and as you saw from the last post, had a mostly great time!! Since then we have kept pretty busy just doig things locally :)
One of the major projects we decided to take on was building HB a playroom... now it sounds like a whole lot, and sort of was, except that we had a great builder.. my dad!! For those of you that remember, when you walk into the front door, normally you would see a sitting room and could walk through to the living room. Well now there is a wall there and it looks like a hall way!! And on the other side is a fun playroom for HB that she is LOVING and so am I! For numerous reasons, but my favortie is that I can shut the door on the mess and leave it for another day ;)
Here is HB supervising the construction..
and here is one of her and how EXCITED she was to go in (FINALLY!)

(more pictures to come when finished decorating) The room seems like it has filled up already and one of her favorite toys is a kitchen set that we got from our friends at church.. look she even bakes us cupcakes ;)

She is def. a summer baby and loves being outside... ALL THE TIME!!!!! She will walk to the door.. and almost understandable talk say "outside" .. or sometimes just "this"! haha. We usually go outside every night for 30 minutes or so before bath, books, and bed. And sometimes it is a fight and the tears break out because we have to go back inside :( The other day it was raining here, so I decided to take the opporunity to get some cute pics (no, not me!) and put her in her rain boots and umbrella (yes I bought the umbrella just for the pics! ;) (hush!) They turned out very cute, but as you will see, she didn't really want to take pictures, she wanted to play in the rain! The sun had already came out by the time her BF got there, but they played together and got some cute pics anyways :)

She is doing ALL KINDS of new things. It just amazes us how quickly she can catch on to things and how quickly she learns to say new words! Some of the new things that she says and does now are: she can say, moo for cow, her version of quack quack for duck (and the word duck) ;) bock bock for chicken, i can spell how she makes the pig! lol, tickle tickle, shoes, hi (along with hey), fish, dog (and dozi) and she can do: kick the soccer ball (:D), run, blow bubbles in the water, blow kisses bye bye, make a smackin noise when she gives a kiss, push the button on her four wheeler, climb onto and off of the sofa! haha, and points at everything!! There is so much more that she is doing, but these are the main ones :) (ps. the last pictures are her having her first blow pop today!! she LOVED it :) ) Enjoy!

14 months

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I know this was a heck of an update, and a novel for your evening... but I do hope to start blogging regularly and even getting back to my menu mondays (which yes i did miss yest!) I hope everyone is doing well and had a great summer! Let that Fall air blow in the decorations, shopping and UGA football baby!!

Call Me for Your Photography Needs :)

I wanted to spread the word that I am now pursuing my passion of photography :) I have been wanting to do this for many years, but have just put it off, especially with a new addition. Then my husband pushed me one good time and said now is as good a time as any!! So if you will please spread the word that I am available for any style photo or portrait, excluding weddings, and on site. I am willing to go up to 25 miles out of our town, Loganville, and will consider further distances for an additional trip fee. I would love to capture the memories in your life and look forward to your or any refferals you send my way. Thank you,
~**~NICOLE~**~

New Recipe

We had the most tasteful dinner tonight, so I just had to share it :) And the best part of it was, it all cooked itself in the croc pot!!

Slow Cooked Enchilada Dinner
6 Servings, 20 Min prep, 2 1/2hrs cook

1lb lean ground beef/turkey
1 sml onion, chopped
1 can (15oz) ranch style beans, undrained
1 can (10oz) diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained
1/4 cup chopped green peeper
1 tspn chili powder
1/2 tsp each salt, ground cumin, pepper
1 cup (4oz) shredded mont jack cheese
1 cup (4oz) shredded cheedar cheese
6 flour tortillas (6 inches)

IN a large skillet, cook meat and onion over md heat until meat is no longer pink. drain.
STIR in the beans, tmtoes, grn pepper, powder, salt, cumin, and pepper. In a small bowl, combine the cheeses, set aside.
IN a 5qt slow cooker coated with cooking spray, place two tortillas side by side, overlapping if necc.
LAYER with a third of the beef mixture, and chese. REPEAT layers twice.
COVER and cook on low for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until heated through.

TIPS:
*As always, make it your own and do the meat of your choice and add and take away ingredients that you like
*I exchanged taco seasoning for the chili powder for more of a mexican taste.
*I did not want to by mont jack cheese and reg. cheese, so I just bout a taco blend and did 8oz of it
*Since this meal is mostly cooked on the stove top, I only put my croc pot on keep warm. I have made this once before and when put on low, I noticed that the edges burn.

Floyd Family Beach Trip

We finally got to go to the beach this year after a two year wait!! We were so excited to get there esp since this would be HB's first time! We left out friday and met up with dustins grandparents and camped with them for the night. It was good to get to see them on the way :) We left first thing on Sat for Flagler, FL Beveryly Beach Campground. I wanted everyone to change in their bathing suits as soon as our feet hit the ground!! I could not wait to see Hailey at the beach. She LOVED it and (the first time, but this will be later in the story ;) ) was pointing and laughing the whole time. She even sat down in the sand and started petting it. We gave her the shovel and bucket and she would dig it up and then put it in the bucket! It was so cute and I got a couple of cute pics of her doing it :)

The second day she HATED the sand. haha!! It went like this the rest of the week. She loved it, she hated it, she loved it, well you get the point. The third day that we were there, Nini (dustins mom) got shoulder deep in it with her building a sandle castle and she was having a ball! After about 15 minutes she realized what was going on and immediately wanted to be washed off!!!... but the again I don't blame her! :) Glad Nini jumped in there with her, cause mommy def. wasnt :b We traveled into St. Augustine and Daytona two of the days we were there and had fun viewing the towns :) Wednesday was Ann's bday we went to a good fish house and eveyone got fish sandwiches (if shrimp counts ;)) We got some family pics the last day we were there and enjoyed a late night on the beach followed by a good camper cooked steak meal :) We had so much fun and were ready to be back Thursday night when we got in. So glad that we got to get away for a while and bring HB to the beach!! :)

Floyd Beach Trip

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Menu Monday!!

IT'S BACK AGAIN!! Yay, I am finally taking the time to do a Menu Monday!! This week I thought I would do one of my favorite types of food, Mexican!! Can you tell from the previous post!! haha. This dish is like not other of its kind and makes for a great summer dinner. It is pretty simple and not too many ingredients, but just enought to make it burst with taste! I love how it takes a traditional taco salad and turns it into a curious adventure for your taste buds :)

Crowd Pleasing Taco Salad

1lb ground Turkey (or your choice of meat)
1/2 cup ketchup
1 tspn dried oregano
1 tspn chili powder
1/2 tspn salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 small bag lettuce (shredded)
2 md tomatoes, diced
1 can shredded taco (mexican blend) cheese
1 can (2 1/4oz) olives *optional
1/2 cup mayo
1/4 cup taco sauce
1 pkg (10 1/2 oz) corn chips

Tips:
*As always, choose the meat that you like best, turkey, pork, chicken, or beef
*For a little less spice, try using taco seasoning instead of chilli powder
*For a cheaper way out on lettude, get a head of lettuce and shred
*If you keep diced tomt's on hand, you can substitute one can for the 2 fresh tomt
*As always with my recipes, I like to encourage you to make it your own.. so add other ingredients, such as onions or bell peppers, that you think would compliment this dish :)

Glad to be helping you out at the dinner table again!!

~**~ENJOY!!~**~

Nicole

4th fireworks

Fireworks

I was anxious to see how HB was going to react to the fireworks... and we would see as the day went on. First we headed over to mom and dad's for some fun in the sun and swimming. It was a HOT day, so we pretty much stayed in the pool the whole time. We had fun with family and friends at dinner... the good ole tradition 4th of july staple food... HAMBURGERS!! They were delicious :) we got Hailey to get in an extra nap so she could make the late night and enjoy the fireworks :)

We went and sat on the lawn at my parents church to watch the big fireworks display from the church a quater mile down the road... we had the PERFECT view!! Hailey had SO MUCH fun running around on the lawn and playing with the kids. She is such a social butterfly. She would get mad and cry if I tried to make her sit down or pick her up! haha. Finally it was dark and time for the action! Soon as the first one popped off, she started looking around like "what was that"??? Once they started going back to back, she caught on and started clapping her hands. I must say it was SO PRECIOUS!! After about a minute and half of sitting still, she started talking to them and then wanted out of my lap. So I put her on the ground and she starts walking towards them and trying to touch them, haha, it was hilarious!! They were a little longer than could keep her attention span, and she was getting a bit tired since it was close to 10o'clock... WAY past her bed time!!

We had such a fun weekend and glad we got to relax a little and enjoy each other :)

(ps... sorry for the delay in posting) :)

"Sweet, Little, Beautiful, Perfect, All American Girl" :)

4th of July

A Sunday afternoon

Hailey seems to be turning into a little girl who is so independent. I know it is just me being that first time parent who now has a toddler, but I feel like she is changing and learning new things everyday! Each day she changes her mind as to what she needs help with; She now thinks that she can feed herself, get in the bathtub by herself, brush her on teeth, brush her own hair, take off her clothes AND her diaper, and even likes to put on bracelets and carry her own purse ;) It is all still so surreal and hard to grasp. She is doing great with learning new words and understanding commands. And sometimes just because she understands them doesn’t me that she is going to listen to them! Haha She has been teething really bad the last few days and we had to stay home from church because of a temp. She just isn’t feeling great and you can tell she isn’t herself. She has had a terrible diaper rash and is is a lot of pain. She just screams when she has to get her diaper changed and it breaks my heart :( I am hoping that the devil tooth is going to pop thru soon so we can move past it :) Here are a few pics that I have taken of her. I love the one in her rocker watching tv. She is doing better and better with sitting in it to watch her shows (instead of the usual, climb in, climb out, climb in, climb out… etc etc repeat!!). Once you can get her to relax in it, she will just sit there for 15 minutes or so and sometimes 30 for a good movie!!:)

A Sunday afternoon :)

Father's Day

This year was Dustin's second fathers day. He happened to squeeze it in by a few weeks last year ;) It was still a very special time! Boys are always so hard to buy for so I decided to go straight the the heart of each man.... food! I decided to get him an Edible Arrangement!! I did a box of strawberry and bananas covered in chocolate!! He loved it and I even got a couple of bites ;) Hailey gave him a gift card to his favorite fish store so that they could go out and pick out the perfect fish together!! "She" also wrote him a poem that he can always keep :) He also got to take a little over a 2 hour afternoon nap, which he LOVED!

We celebrated the day with my dad first for lunch with his family and then headed to Dustin's dads to celebrate with him. But it is funny no matter what the holiday is, there is always one cute little girl that steals the show!! :) haha. She is always such a ham and LOVES to be the center of attention! I dont know WHERE she got that from?!?!?! She loves to entertain and then laugh at herself with you. She is so proud of any activity that she does and makes you laugh at her. She is always checking to make sure that you are watching!

Fathers day 2010

The whole day was special right down to the 45 min daddy and daughter time watching a movie on TV!

Labels

I have now created labels for every post on the blog. YES it was a BIG TASK!!! But I took sometime and went all the way back to the beg :) So now you can navigate a little better and view older post. I have placed it on the right hand side bar and they are in alphabetical order. So, for example, if you want to look at all my recipes I have put up on the blog, simply click on the label "recipe" and it will bring all of them up! Hopefully this will make navigating the blog a bit easier :)

Hailey's First Birthday

Instead of writing about how FABULOUS ;) the party was, I have decided to put up the poem that I wrote for her. It somehow didnt make it out at the party, so it should be new to everyone. Hope you enjoy :)

SWEET BABY GIRL

June 8, 2009
I held you in my arms for the very first time

10 Perfect fingers and 10 Perfect toes
I love to watch you crinkle that cute little nose

We brought you home so anxious and stressed

the next few nights you would put us to the test

Restless nights while watching you sleeping
Waking up for 3AM feedings

How I ever made it, I'm not realy sure
To tell you the truth, the first few weeks were a blur

You learned so quickly to hold up you head
And it seemed all too fast wehn we moved you to your own bed

You flashed your first smile and I felt my heart melt
This kind of love, I have never felt

Wow! you are crawling all over the house
As quick as a cat chasing a mouse

It's high fives and patty cakes all in a row
It's hugs and kisses, your love you can now show

Waving "bye, bye" to friends and to strangers
In your little eyese, there are no fears and no dangers

We blinked our eyes and you took your first steps
Mommy closed her eyes and simply wept

You are a big girl now who is turning one!
We will celebrate with a party and have lots of fun

But on this day there is one thing you should know
I have had so much fun so far watching you grow

God has blessed us with a miracle from up above
A sweet little Angel who is full of pure love

So here's to the party, the guest, and ballons
Out little Cupcake turns ONE on the 8th day of June

Love Mommy :)

First Birthday Party :)

I am ONE year old now!!

I am ONE year old!!

The day that I thought was SO FAR away the day she was born finally snuck up on us... and might I add came entirely to fast!! One year ago we were counting down the anxious hours until our beautiful heaven sent baby came along, and today, we were chasing her through the aquarium to see all the fish!! Wow, how things change so quickly. She has brought so much laughter to my life, does so many things that surprise me, makes me feel loved everyday, and never fails to smile at just the right times :) So many things have happened in this past year and too many to recap, but she is def. a little kiddo to keep up with now!

We started out the day with an egg and some turkey sausage for a big girl breakfast.. in our "birthday suit" haha. The first thing she wanted to do this morning was take off all her clothes :) lol Then we chased each other around the house and crawled on daddy in the bed! She got to opem up a present early :) I got her a tigger and pooh push/ride toy.. and she LOVED IT! It plays music and the little characters move to it.. needless to say she didnt want to get ready to go because she still wanted to play. We then headed to the aquarium for a full hour of fun! There was so much for her to take in, but she did a good job of soaking every single bit of it up. She loved the big viewing windows were she could walk up and be right next to the fish. She kept trying to step in :) She kept screaming at the fish, and even tho a bit embarrassing, we let her do her thing! She got to go swimming for just a little bit and play with one of her new toys from GG :)

After all this, you can imagine that she needed a nap... so 2 hours later and well rested, guest arrived! We had both of our families over to celebrate and also celebrate Chad's (dustins brother) bday! She acted like a mad woman from the time that everyone got there. She was, of course, all dolled up... and new how BEAUTIFUL taht she looked, and maybe even that it was her party ;) so she made the best of it! She was walking around at the top of her lungs saying "HAHAHAHA!!" it was pretty hilarious :)

We finally got to the good part, PRESENTS!! She LOVED the new princess rocking chair that we gave her, and she LOVED the swing/slide set that GG and Gdaddy gave her, and she LOVED the new wagon that she got that is all personalized for her and only her, and she LOVED the light up and singing toy that her uncle adam got for her to play with, and i LOVE the new pretty hand painted plate that she got from aunt erin and uncle chad!

We decided that Saturday was just too long to wait to dig in to a cake, and every little one needs a cake on their bday! Well hailey had hers and ate it too! haha. She was so precious and only stuck one little pointer finger in for a taste. She got more and more suspicous.. and then daddy stuck both her hands in and that was the end of the nice and neat baby :) She was also up for sharing with ANYONE. We all got some good tasting cake! ;) She did a great job digging in, so for those of you that are coming on Saturday, you will get to see a semi-pro ;)

Although full of birthday cake, our sweet little angel went right down to bed after a big day for a little girl who turned one :)