Hailey's Kitties

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

cousins

From the beginning of of our marriage until Hailey was born Tim and I lived in Maryland. We had wonderful jobs, wonderful friends, a wonderful church and really enjoyed where we lived, but after Hailey was born our priorities changed and our number one goal was to be close to family so Hailey could grow up close to her grandparents, close to her uncles, aunts and cousins.

Little did we know how much our family would endure in the coming years, but we are so grateful we moved back to go through these deep things close to our family.

These things have been beyond what I believed we could endure, but we are stronger through them and I believe the bond between Hailey and her cousins will last long after they are grown.

These cousins are not only bonded because they are family, but are bonded due to losing a daddy and an uncle and watching another cousin go through incredible pain and yet they hope and pray for her and keep smiling knowing they are loved and taken care of in spite of all their eyes have seen in their young lives.

From Oct.09

Hailey wasn't feeling well last weekend due to a stomach bug and what does Alyssa do? Draw her this beautiful picture and send it to her in the mail. Hailey was SO excited to get mail, ran upstairs with it, admired all the stickers on the envelope without opening it and hugged it tightly jumping up and down. Thank you Alyssa for your picture, it defintely brightened Hailey's day!

From Oct.09

This weekend, Hailey was not only able to spend yesterday at her cousin Luke and Alyssa's house, but today they came to her house.

From Oct.09

Pip was a big hit with both Luke and Alyssa - here is Luke pushing a carriage, yes a carriage with Pip in it. The girls were quite jealous and wanted a turn :-)

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

They had loads of fun, and it was refreshing to hear them running, jumping, yelling and laughing like normal carefree kids in spite of it all and we hope and pray that someday soon Jordyn will be running around with them once again!

From apple picking

From apple picking

From christmas.08

From christmas.08

big girl bed

From Oct.09

Lately Hailey has been requesting a "big girl" bed and she adds - like Alyssa has ... ha, ha. Anyway, my brother of course just got married and did not need his bed anymore so we swiped it and Hailey now has a big girl bed in which she loves!

She actually is infamous for waking up around 2am to come to our bed. I know everyone has a different take on children in the bed, but I have always been a push over because to soon she will be grown up and not want to be in our bed anymore, even though I will probably get a much better nights sleep when she does stop doing this.

Anyway, when we got the bed all set up she states that she will not come to our bed anymore and I encouraged that saying if she wakes up just go back to sleep and sure enough this morning I woke up with her asleep in HER bed. I do miss her, but boy was it nice not to be kicked all night!

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

On Saturday Hailey went to Wyatt's birthday party at Rumble Tumble in Portsmouth, NH. She had a great time! Happy Birthday Wyatt!

From Oct.09

And what is fall without a leaf pile?

From Oct.09

Yes, that is me in the leaf pile thanks to Tim and Hailey. I do not pass up a dare.

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

Note my wonderful hair below, it would have been a nice family pix minus the leaves all through my hair!

From Oct.09

Fall in New England

From Oct.09

This past Friday Hailey was supposed to go on her first fieldtrip with her school to a pumpkin patch. Since she was feeling well on Sunday and her cousin came over we decided to go to Sherman Farms in Conway. We had a great time and Taylor led us through the maize in record time!

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

Today we pulled out Hailey's bike and for the first time ever she was able to peddle up and down the driveway - go Hailey!

From Oct.09

She also asked daddy to build her a pile of leaves to jump in. She had a blast, I am sure we will have many more to rake in the coming weeks.

From Oct.09

Above is Hailey's halloween costume. This year I assumed she would be a princess and wasn't even going to buy a costume. Well, she was at Walmart a few weeks ago and saw the SuperGirl costume and said she wanted it. I thought it would be a fleeting decision and held off buying it. Well weeks later she still was stuck on it so I ordered it online and it came in today. She had a blast running around the house saving "her kingdom".

And of course a pix of our kitty. He went to the vet last Friday. They think he is about 8 weeks. The name decided by Hailey from the Little Mermaid 2 movie - Pip. The name grew on us so Pip it is ...

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

updates

From September.2009

So far we have been enjoying fall. We went to the local fair, which was actually quite horrible, but Hailey didn't know any better so she had fun.

From September.2009

Tim recently built a fire pit in the backyard so we are enjoying it with smores of course!

From September.2009

We also have a new kitty. We have had a mother with 4 kittens living under our shed. We finally caught one, but we think the others might have moved away because we cannot find them. Anyway, our newest addition is very sweet and quite a bundle of energy. Hailey is especially thrilled to be able to handle something smaller than her and loves walking about with it like a stuffed animal.

From September.2009

From September.2009

This past weekend my cousin Kelly came down for a visit and we had a blast!

From September.2009

On the school front, mornings are getting easier and Hailey is doing wonderful. She is actually exceeding my expectations in what she is learning and she really seems to be enjoying the time she is there. The schedule itself seems to wear her out, but I guess thats not a bad thing. She is in bed by 7:30p every night, and goes to sleep pretty quickly which is a blessing.

We recently started using a chart to track "good behavior" ie, no crying or whining at bedtime, school time, in anticipation of brushing our teeth etc .... Do you see a pattern? Yes, we have dealt with alot of crying and whining episodes and I was sick of it.

Hailey does well with visuals and schedules and actually adjusts better when she knows the order of things, so having the chart has been great for her, and has really helped with these times when I used to have to deal with attitude. We still have times of whining, but I have seen a huge improvement!

and so it begins

From September.2009

On Monday it was confirmed that Jordyn relapsed once again. For those who might not know the story, she was diagnosed at 18mo will ALL (acute lymphocytic leukemia), relapsed at 4, had a bone marrow transplant at 5 and relapsed again on Monday at age 8. She is such a fighter and talks so matter of factly about her cancer. She states she is in the hospital to get well and go home again.

The docs, the family are taking it one day at a time. Hoping her body is strong enough to handle it all once again. And so the journey begins ....

Please keep her and her family in your prayers. This is Hailey's first time really being old enough to understand. We went to visit Jordyn today before her counts get to low and she is at high risk for infection. Hailey was a little apprehensive of the whole scene, but once she saw Jordyn she was put at ease. She loves all her cousins and just wants to bring Jordyn home. Jordyn told her, as soon as she gets better she will be home again to play. So we pray that she indeed comes home again.

Tomorrow she begins her chemo and a new chapter begins ...

From September.2009

From September.2009

From September.2009

From September.2009

From September.2009

From September.2009

marriage

Hailey was recently talking about who she could marry so I played along and started listing boys, Elijah, Keegan ... she stopped me right at that point and stated matter of factly, "mom, I can't marry Elijah, he won't hold my hand!"

Today was her second day of school and she thankfully did great going to school. She let me leave with a hug, kiss and wave. She came home in a great mood as well, but was exhausted by 6p!

Happy Birthday Ashwee!

Happy 17th Birthday to Hailey's Big Sis Ashwee!!! We love you sooo much!

First Day of School

From September.2009

Hailey had her first day of preschool today. She had a little trouble when we left, but the teacher said it was a short 20 sec bout of crying and she was fine. When we picked her up she was in the best mood and told us all about her day so in all I think it was a successful first day of preschool!

From September.2009

From September.2009