12.31.2008

12.30.2008

8 months!

hadleigh is 8 months old today! it's hard to believe that she's only been in our lives for such a short time -- i don't know what we did before her! she's such a blessing. she is getting so big and changing so much every day! she is constantly on the move... she is never sitting still anymore. she makes me tired. she crawls everywhere and is pulling up on everything. she has turned into a little daredevil and likes to pull up and then hold on with only one hand. she hasn't gotten hurt doing it... yet. she has two teeth now. she's eating all the time. her favorites right now are apples and cherries, apples/strawberry/banana, and anything with chicken. i tried giving her some cereal puffs the other day... she has only figured out how to mush them in her hands. she's just so fun :) here are some recent pictures!









12.29.2008

asheville.

this past weekend, jered, hadleigh and i went here:

this is the biltmore house. we took a little weekend trip to asheville... saturday we just walked around downtown and went in all the little shops. it was a lot like fayetteville. sunday, we ventured out to the biltmore. the pictures outside do not do it justice. it is a huge (5 story) house surrounded by TONS of open land, a winery, vineyard, etc. etc. etc. it's a house built in the late 1800s and is one of the biggest homes in the nation. it has an indoor swimming pool with the original lighting and super-old bowling alley. they also still had up their christmas decorations complete with 35-foot christmas tree. very cool. too bad we couldn't take pictures inside...


hadleigh hanging out.


biltmore, hadleigh, and daddy...


biltmore, hadleigh, and mama...

merry christmas!

we had a great time celebrating with hadleigh on her first christmas! we think she had fun -- we opened all of her presents for her, and she played with every bow and piece of wrapping paper. she's been playing with all of her toys now and wearing all of her new clothes! we didn't take that many pictures; we just wanted to enjoy the day with our kiddo, but here are a few that we took.

hadleigh climbing on sonny...


reading a new book with mama!



riding on her new push toy...


crawling around in her christmas gear.


santa came to visit!

12.26.2008

and up she goes...

the past week or so, hadleigh has been "pulling up" on various things around the room, like baskets and my knees when i sit on the floor. she thinks she's hot stuff and starts laughing and grinning every time she stands. today she learned that furniture was up higher, so she pulled up on the couch and stood there until i sat her back down...

now she wants to pull up and stand on everything. we are in trouble.

12.18.2008

these are a few of my favorite things...

our little hadleigh is getting so big! she will be 8 months old at the end of this month. she officially has one tooth now. she's crawling quickly now... she doesn't go far when she gets going, but she's a whirlwind in the space she does cover. she's eating lots -- right now her favorites are apple strawberry banana and chicken noodle dinner, both equally appetizing, i'm sure. she's actually taking naps a little better now that she's moving around so much. her are a few of her current favorites...

sonny (not a current picture, but my absolute favorite). she loves everything about sonny. i am trying to teach her the art of "playing nice" with sonny after yesterday when she was "petting" sonny by pulling his leg hair pretty fiercely and then came away with a chunk of sonny hair. sonny is still very good with her though... he doesn't mind (yet) that she doesn't play nice. she also loves sonny's toys. that is the #1 thing hadleigh goes after when she crawls. in response, sonny thinks that she can officially play and always takes his toys to her... which, in turn, end up in her mouth.


bathtime! hadleigh is still a big fan of bathtime. she discovered this week that she can sit straight up in the bath instead of leaning back against the bathtub. this has prompted lots of play, LOTS of splashing, and lots of water all over the bathroom and mama and daddy.

toys that play music and light up. we have the one pictured below, but hadleigh is not partial. she currently likes all toys that light up and play music... they mesmerize her. she just sits and stares and giggles forever! if it's the music that plays while she's in her exersaucer, a little dancing/bouncing is also included.

the kitchen, mainly the kitchen floor. hadleigh loves the noise the kitchen floor makes when she slaps it repeatedly, so that is where she heads after mama takes sonny's toys away. she just lays between the kitchen and hallway and bangs on the floor. :)




her crib. hadleigh might play in here all day if we'd let her. she can entertain herself for a while pulling up on the bumper pads, pushing the button on the aquarium toy, and crawling back and forth across the crib. notice the missing bumper pad. a few mornings ago, i woke up at 5 am to hadleigh tearing the bumper pad down and playing on top of it. every time i replaced it, she tore it down again. therefore, i took it down and she went to sleep. now, during naptime, we throw the pacifier out of the crib through those rails...





and lastly... christmas gifts. or the ornaments at the bottom of the tree. or anything else that makes a different noise when you scratch your fingernails on it. hadleigh is into different sounds and textures and loves running her fingernails along things to see what sounds she can produce. the christmas gifts, christmas bows, and that big silver ornament have been good sound producers so far!


all in all, she's still the happiest, most fun baby ever! :)

eight.

i found this off another blog that i read... i think there's a way to "tag" people in the blogging world, but i don't know anything about that. maybe kellie will fill it out. i tag her. :)

8 TV Shows I Watch

1) one tree hill
2) grey's anatomy
3) law and order:svu reruns, but i've found i can only watch it when jered is in the house... i get scared
4) occassionally i watch jon and kate plus 8... then i remember that kate gets on my nerves and i turn the channel
5) friends
6) 90210
7) the today show
8) flip that house

8 Favorite Restaurants

1) chili's
2) chili's -- i like it enough that it deserves to be mentioned twice
3) p.f. chang's
4) mcalister's
5) the cheesecake factory
6) subway
7) the melting pot
8) most japanese restaurants where they cook the food at your table

8 Things that happened to me today (i'll use yesterday since today i have only done 2 things... play with hadleigh and nap)

1) played with hadleigh
2) tried to teach hadleigh the meaning to "no ma'am" every time she tries to play with sonny's toys, which are apparently way better than hers
3) addressed Christmas cards
4) folded clothes
5) made rice crispy treats
6) talked to my mama
7) loved watching hadleigh feed herself her bottles
8) made peppermint hot chocolate

8 Things I look forward to

1) hadleigh's first birthday parties
2) hanging out with my husband on his days off
3) graduation
4) watching hadleigh grow up
5) nap time... i look forward to this each and every day now. hadleigh and her crawling ways make me tired
6) when us weekly comes in the mail
7) Christmas morning
8) taking hadleigh to swimming lessons at the y next month!

8 Things I am thankful for

1) my marriage... i love my husband. sometimes he makes me crazy, but mostly he helps keep me sane.
2) HADLEIGH. she is the best thing ever
3) hadleigh's health. i can say with 99.9% confidence she is one of the healthiest kids i know :)
4) my family. they're all awesome
5) the fact that i am able to be in school right now learning to do what i love
6) my job. even though sometimes i say otherwise
7) wal-mart - they give me a discount and pay my bills.
8) my friends!

8 Things I wish for

1) for hadleigh to grow up healthy and happy
2) a smaller cell phone bill
3) snow - at least once this winter
4) for my arkansas friends to come visit me
5) sometimes i wish for jered to work days... but at least i got him back in the state. that's a start. 6) another nap
7) for hadleigh to say "mama" and stop calling me "dada"
8) better photography skills so i could catch all the awesome faces my kiddo makes on camera

12.16.2008

hadleigh and santa.

hadleigh had her first encounter with santa last night, and she LOVED him! once we got her to quit sucking on her fingers, she spent the rest of her time on santa's lap either laughing at jered and me or turned around starting at santa! here's our picture to remember the occassion!

12.10.2008

deck the halls!


i love the holidays! our christmas decorations are finally up... if i had my way, i'd leave them up until spring. thank goodness for visits from mama and her creativity :)













12.06.2008

teeth.

hadleigh has a tooth! it busted through yesterday on the bottom right. it's just the tippity-top, but it's too cute nonetheless.

12.04.2008

santa baby.

my friend rachel came over today and took some pictures of my sweet girl. she did SUCH an AWESOME job! i couldn't pick just one, so i had to share lots of them! enjoy...

















love her!

12.01.2008

it's official.

hadleigh's a crawler.

i use the term "crawling" loosely. there is nothing synchronized or graceful about what's she doing. however, she is up on her hands and knees, moving them both, and going forward. therefore, i call it crawling.

it's very cute. : )