Gunstock

Yesterday we went to hike Mt. Major, little did we know it was on fire and closed off. You can see the article and some videos here. The cool thing, was as you round the corner you have the mountain on one side and the lake on the other. Just as we rounded the bend (the road had not been closed off yet) a helicopter was coming out of the water with a big bucket of water to dump on the fire. We were so close it was quite a neat experience.

After we realized we weren't going to be hiking that mountain we headed to Gunstock. We got a map and headed up to the summit. We weren't ready for how steep it really was. You can see in the picture below the mountain we climbed. Once on top we headed around on an actual hiking trail to another adjacent mountain and that is where we took this picture. This was on our descent down the other side. As you can see we traveled far! The whole trip took about 3 hours.



Not only was it high, but we were hiking in SNOW and it was 65 degrees outside! The snow added quite a twist to the hike.


I can't say enough about how wonderful Hailey does, she uses her imagination and tells us that she "lives in the trees" (ha, ha). We also let her hike some of it and she takes a rock home from each hike to paint. We have yet to paint though :-) This hike was our greatest and hardest yet, but boy was it beautiful!

We have had beautiful, almost perfect temperatures lately and it makes it quite hard to even stay indoors. On Friday we enjoyed another nice 2 hour hike and Hailey did great!

Friday night we celebrated Alyssa's 4th birthday. Happy Birthday Alyssa! All the kids were able to make their own animal, Hailey chose a lamb and named it Olivia. She loves that name because she is a HUGE fan of the Olivia books. Sadly, my camera was in the hiking backpack and I forgot it for Alyssa's party, but as you can imagine the kids had a blast.

That night daddy decided to surprise us with a new pet, a hermit crab. Lets just say within 24 hours it found a new home. I am not saying they are not good pets, but its not really what I had in mind.

Sunday I decided it was time to pull out some warmer weather clothes and we dug out the bins Auntie Robin gave us last summer of Alyssa's 2T clothes. Lets just say we hit the jackpot! Truly I would never have to go shopping if I just didn't love it so much (ha,ha)! Thank you Auntie Robin and Alyssa.
In the bin Hailey found this dress which she calls her "princess dress". She asked me to put it on her and she dressed all up. Notice the huge smile on her face, she looks at me and says - "I'm beautiful".

Can you tell she spent the day with daddy?

Medley

Cinderella

spring has arrived!

We had a rough day yesterday so we decided to go for a refreshing hike up a mountain not to far from our house. We all had a blast and Hailey even decided to give it a try on the way down. On the way home w even detoured for a stop at the beach, talk about a perfect end to a not so perfect day.

Zoe

Zoe, our first baby, was put to sleep last night. I will spare the details, but she was still a baby at only 4 years old. She just developed alot of health problems and we knew they would eventually take her we just didn't think it would be this quick. We are very sad because she was a big part of our family. For those who have pets, when I say there is a void you know what I mean.


I can't seem to find the pictures of Hailey and Zoe I wanted, but here is one. Truthfully, Zoe had a love/hate relationship with Hailey. Hailey would gleefully chase her with her brush - "mommy I want to brush Zoe" and Zoe would ungleefully run in the other direction. One in awhile Hailey could get close enough to pet Zoe, but not often. Zoe was never mean to Hailey though she just loved having her space and Hailey loved to feed Zoe (she tried even this morning before she knew she was gone). Even notice Zoe in the pix below, I think she is waiting for Hailey to notice her before she runs :-)

And now that you are thoroughly sad read my post below to lighten the mood!

check-up

My camera has been missing (don't ask), so I haven't been able to take pictures in days, but today I got it back. When I was uploading what was on there this picture made me laugh after a rough day.

Last week I had my yearly OB-GYN appointment, we should all know what those entail. Well, on Tuesday nights daddy works 3rd shift and so he sleeps during the day on Wednesday. Hailey wouldn't take a nap with him so she ended up coming with me to my appointment so daddy could sleep.

The above picture is her as soon as we walked in the door ... she was "checking" the monkey. It is hilarious to see her act out what happened. She doesn't have an actual doctors set, but she finds stuff around her room that will work for the check-up and ad-libs. Notice in her right hand is her bug catcher scissors - ouch! For those who know what they look like up close (Robin) you will laugh out loud!

finally - the park!

It was finally nice enough to go to the park today and Hailey had a BLAST! It was like discovering it for the first time!

Since it is slowly warming up we decided it was time to pull "pack, pack" out of storage and dust it off for another season of hiking. This year Hailey is quite excited about it and LOVES backpacking. Daddy actually took her today while mommy was at work and they had a blast.

our little princess

Hailey LOVES Cinderella and since mommy has been on the couch today with strep we have watched many movies. This morning was Cinderella, after it was over and time to get dressed for the day she decided she wanted to dress like a princess. She has been running around the house saying ... bippidi, doppidi, doo ... (that is how she says it :-) and shaking her wand at us! She also runs around singing, "sing, sweet nightingale". Its so cute!

For lunch today daddy brought home a McDonalds happy meal for Hailey and guess what the prize inside was? A princess Jazmine crown!

strep

Yeah, I have strep. How I got it I have no idea and before I knew I had it I shared food/drinks with Tim and Hailey so we may all be doomed this week!

On Monday Adia and Elijah came by for a visit. After Elijah left the girls painted their nails and Hailey LOVED painting her nails all by herself. She even tried doing mommies!

And this morning Hailey had gymnastics. Every week we see so much improvement. This has been a great investment and she LOVES it! For those who are interested she has a gym show June 11th and everyone is invited.

Below the teacher is helping her do a side slide on the balance beam.

I don't know if I mentioned that daddy is now watching Hailey during the week now that my mom started a new job. This new arrangement is working out well and if you ask Hailey who her best friend is the answer you will get - DADDY!!! She loves all the extra time she gets with him!

So wish us a healthy and happy week ahead :-)

if you find spring can you send it up here?

Well, the 5o degrees was short lived because Friday we had ANOTHER snow storm! It moved New Hampshire up the snowiest winters list to second place in the past 135 years. Aren't we all so proud?! If spring doesn't arrive soon I fear I may go insane.


This was Hailey Friday morning - do you see something wrong?! Snow boots, winter hat and coat and its almost APRIL?!Notice Hailey's shoes ... Hailey is in love with Cinderella right now and she found these "glass slippers" in my closet. She loves trying to walk around in them ...

Last night we went to Meme's and all the cousins were able to play together which is always fun!

Do you love Alyssa's new Hannah Montana hair?! She was so cute playing dress-up last night. Can you tell Hailey NEVER cooperates when I am taking a picture!

And in case you want to check it out, many of you know my husband is a wonderful singer and leads worship for our church, but you may not know my brother is musical as well. He actually drums for the band. Drumming is his newest passion, but when he was little he learned to play the piano as well and recently he wrote a song and put music to it. If you want to check it out here is a link to his and Laura's blog where she has a video posted.

http://www.mds-llg.blogspot.com/

Good job Uncle Matt!

50 degrees and daddy's birthday

Who knew 50 degrees could feel so warm?!

Yesterday Hailey saw a little grass for the first time since fall and she ran around on the little patch yelling "grass mommy"! Lately she has also been talking about wanting to go swimming. We can only hope spring is on its way seeming as we woke up with a fresh coat of snow on the car! I can't complain though because by this afternoon it did warm up.

Yesterday was daddy's 29th birthday!!! We want to wish him a very happy birthday! He truly is the best dad and husband, we are very blessed. Hailey and I had fun decorating the house so when daddy came home from work he was quite surprised.

Hailey and Ashleigh, her "big sister"

birthdays and bunnies

This weekend Hailey's friend Sidney celebrated her 2nd birthday! She had an airplane theme which was really neat and as always we all had fun.

Can you believe we have had a birthday party every weekend this month and daddy's birthday is this Tuesday. This is getting mighty expensive :-)

Do you love Sindey's airplane jumper suit? She looked adorable!

Amongst the birthday party fun Hailey has had a cold. She is hanging in there and slowly getting better ...

with lots of rest ...

and cuddles! :-)

She had a great Easter as well, the easter bunny left her some goodies which she loved - note to self - save the basket for later in the day or live with screams at 7am because she doesn't understand why she can't eat the chocolate bunny!

Daddy produced the easter program at our church and did an amazing job.Thankfully amongst the colds and laryngitis I got he somehow stayed healthy thus far! Because of the presentation he had the weekend off from work which was quite a treat for us, but all good things must come to and end so back to work we go!