I finally got my Christmas pics, so I thought I'd post them. To get us in the Holiday spirit we went with my parents to the Bellagio and Town Square to see the Christmas decor. We also had a quick, fun visit from my aunt and unlce who live in Georgia. Its always fun to see them! She made Hadley her pink hat which was just what we needed for our Christmas in Utah!!

We started a new tradition in our family now that we are getting some grandkids on my dad's side! On Christmas Eve we always have a big progressive dinner but this time after dinner we went outside and spread some sort of mixture that Aiden made in preschool, all over the grass for the reindeer. Then we look in the air and find a red light, and lie to our kiddos and pretend its Santa. Then we go inside and the guys go put a present out on the lawn for each kid. And its their Christmas pajamas! It was a hit and Hadley keeps saying Santa brought her a red balloon.


We had a fun Christmas with my family and they spoiled us. Grandma and grandpa saved Hadley's christmas by giving her a rocking horse and making her a cinderella blanket. Brandon and I had to open all her other presents cause she could have cared less. The princess was not a hit, but hungry hungry hippos was.


Our highlight of the day was talking to my brother Kason, who is on a mission. We're excited for him to come home in June!

Then we took off to Salt Lake to see Brandon's family! We had such a great weekend and Hadley loved the snow! Grandpa Craig took us sledding and aunt Caitlin almost killed my daughter on a sled but we loved every minute of it. We played lots of games and saw lots of family and friends and it was great!

Our friends Dustin and Audra planned a fun get-together. It has been way too long since we've all been together and we were sad for the families who couldn't be there. But we had an awesome night visiting and catching up.

Disney ON Ice

We took Hadley to see Disney on Ice and it was so cute! My parents came down to hang out and come with us. We had a fun weekend with them! All week Hadley was telling us that Grandma and Papa were coming Friday and we were going to see ice skating on Sat.

We went early to see the new Princess and the Frog princess. And see Cinderella! Hadley loves Cinderella even though her face in these pics says other wise! She is seriously the most un-photogenic person ever!

Cars:

Little Mermaid:

Lion King: This one was my Favorite!

I think Tinkerbell should stick with Peter Pan, I don't like her as much. But Hadley LOVES her so I guess thats all that matters.

Hadley kept bumming off ice cream from Grandma. She won't use a spoon, just her fingers good thing her grandma is a good sport! She wore this dress all day and to bed including the heels! But when she wears it she only answers to Cinderella. (At least she is not a horse) The funniest part was when she said, "Grandma, make Cinderella some dinner!!"

We hate goodbyes! She gets so sad when these two goons leave us! They are the best and we love it when they come see us!

What I am Thankful for...

I thought the 2's were going to be scary, but I have to say I LOVE this stage! She is constantly cracking us up and saying new sentences. I have to jot these things down or else I will forget them.

-She tells me, "you're not funny, I funny"
- She'll call me mommy, mom, or honey
- She's obsessed with her daddy
- As soon as Brandon comes in she yells "mommy, daddy is home!"
- Then she has to take his tie off for him and help him with his shoes.
- When she wakes up from her nap she has to close her door and then before she comes downstairs she says, "mommy, I awake"
-She always says please and thanks to me and Brandon
-She's the best encourager and tells us good job or be careful
-She has the cutest imagination! but thinks she's a horse
-Her favorite #is 5 and always asks for 5 eggs or 5 chicken nuggets
-She likes circle cereal (fruit loops)
-When we take her up to bed and she's trying to stall she'll say, " Haddy be funny" and fall down or hit her head to try and make us laugh
- She loves her papa and always says " papa get Hadley" Or "grandma and papa funny"
- She's good with everyone's names
- She tells us Santa gets stuck in chimney's and he's bringing her a horse
- She love to count things and can count to 15
-she loves the casinos and thinks they are her castles
-and she 's a big tease!

That time of year again!

Here is a little preview of our family pics. I'm so excited! I love getting new family pictures even though it stresses me out. I hate picking out outfits and wondering if Hadley is going to cooperate.

Usually my cousin Jaime does our pics around Thanksgiving when we're driving through St. George or while we are there for the Holiday. But this year I can't talk my husband into driving to far. So I asked my friend Lindsay to practice on us. If you look at her blog every pic she takes is cute and creative or the style or color are different. So thanks Linds for putting up with us and for some cute pictures.

Happy Halloween!

{THURSDAY}

Our weekend was so much fun! It started Thursday night with our ward's trunk or treat. Hadley was a witch.

Getting her all ready. Warning; this girl does not know how to work it for a camera!

A family in our ward brings this awesome train for all the kids to ride in. Its the highlight of the night! This is Had's friend/babysitter Jerrod. She always say's, "jerrod's nice"

Her buddy Nate was a scary lion!

{FRIDAY}

We went with Wes, Lindsay and her parents to the PBR! My favorite thing about the rodeo are the bulls, so just going to the professional bull riding competition was so fun! Thank you Marz and Griffeth's for a fun night out! Oh and the best part was when we were walking in and this little girl sees Wes in his giddy-up and turns to her mom and says, "Mom a real cowboy!"

{SATURDAY}
The evening was great! Awesome company and lots of yummy treats for mom and dad! I'm the worst at taking pics so I'm leaving lots of people out, but thanks to the Crouch kids who took our little ones around with them!

{SUNDAY}

You know you had a great weekend when this happens over lunch!

big ol' update

Its been forever since we've updated the blog.. so here we go.

Brandon and I just got back from a fabulous 8 day trip to Maui! Its been in the works for 2 years. We went with Brandon's family. Adults only, which is the only way to go in my opinion! My parents were great and came and took Hadley up to St. George. She had so much fun and they did a lot of fun things with her.

I don't have a lot of pics, Brandon's sister was our personal photographer (thanks Cait! seriously you were the best! it was probably annoying for you at times) but I'll post some of the ones I do have.


Here we are on the road to Hana.



One night we got up at 2 in the morning and drove 2 hours to Haleakala and watched the sunrise. It was pretty cool. You are up 10,000 ft and above all the clouds and its amazing!
For Brandon's birthday we did a zipline. Well 5 hours worth of zipping, there were 7 of them! It was the longest zip line in the world. It was so fun and our guides were the best!

One of the nights we snuck away and went on a date. We went down to Wailea to shop and eat.

This was in Kaanapali, the beach was amazing. I think our favorite beach in Maui was big beach though! On our last day we were the last to leave so we took some old towel cards from our brother and sister in law and went down to the marriott and hung out! This was just on a little grassy ledge where we soaked up some sun! It was HEAVEN! I did not want to come home! Seriously give me a book and throw me on a beach and I'm content! I loved it! Thank you Jill and Craig for our lodging! It was the best vacation!



This was a while ago, but Hadley is getting so big! She is so dang funny and tries to make us laugh. She talks so great and comes up with the funniest things! She is so independent now and has to do things herself and has opinions on what she wants to wear all of a sudden. We went to dinner one night and she insisted on her glasses. Oh well, I can handle her wearing those in public but I draw the line with her princess dresses!

Over labor day or whatever Holiday was in Sept.. my parents came down and we took Hadley to the dolphin and lion exhibit. It was fun. and then we went out with my parents to Phantom. It was great! Its nice to live close so we can go do fun things together!

Daddy Daughter Date

Kiley decided to take off for the weekend, so I stayed home to take care of Hadley. I thought it would be a good opportunity to bond with my daughter since I don't get to hang out with her a lot during the week while I'm working. So I decided to take her out on a daddy-daughter date Saturday night.

Hadley loves Finding Nemo and she loves "fishies" so I took her first to the Bass Pro Shop to see the big aquarium in the Silverton. As we were on our way I said, "Do you want to go see the fishies?" And she replied "Go to fishies' house!" Here's a couple pictures of Hadley looking at the aquarium. (I didn't have my camera with me so I took all these pics with my cell phone camera, which explains the poor quality).

I wish the Silverton would move the bar away from the aquarium. There's always tons of kids hanging around the aquarium and the people at the bar don't seem to care that their cigarette smoke lingers over so everybody at the aquarium can inhale it with them.

The problem with taking kids to see something they love is that they never want to leave. Luckily Hadley loves castles as much as she loves fish. So after dragging her out of the Bass Pro Shop I took her to the Excalibur to see a "real" castle. We parked on top of the parking garage where we could see the castle really well. She loved it.

She didn't want to leave there either. As I tried to put her back in the car she freaked out and kicked her shoes off, so I put her down and let her run around the top of the parking garage in her bare feet. Normally I wouldn't let her do that, but since it was her date, I figured I'd let her do whatever she wanted.



Finally I was able to bribe her to get into the car with promises of a green Slurpee. What date would be complete without treats from 7-Eleven?

After running around the Excalibur parking lot, Hadley's feet were pretty dirty. This picture makes her feet look huge:

Overall I'd say it was an excellent date. Plus it only cost me$2.57.

Kiley wanted me to add that I also got Hadley ready for church Sunday morning by painting her toenails and doing her hair. I'd say that I did a good job, except apparently I put her dress on backwards. Fortunately nobody noticed but Kiley. Who puts buttons on the front of a dress? Come on! The best part of Sunday morning while I was getting Hadley ready was when she looked at me and said "Daddy cute." I love my baby.