Thanksgiving and The Beginning of Christmas

From Nov.09

We spent Thanksgiving this year with my side of the family. Believe it or not by some miracle Tim had three days off including Thanksgiving! We had a blast and were able to meet baby Ella! She is beautiful!

From Nov.09

Above is Hailey and Kailee and below is Hailey with her GiGi (great grandmother)

From Nov.09

On black Friday Tim and I actually woke up at 4:30a and went out shopping. We actually went straight to Toys R Us and got a great deal on what Hailey wants for Christmas. Once we got home we put up our trees and spent the rest of the day decorating and relaxing. This year we went a little unconventional. Hailey has a small pink tree and we have a white one.

From Nov.09

As you know from reading this blog we have a new little kitten. Well, he is not your normal cat. He likes water, chases vacuums, loves human food etc ... So what more would you expect then for him to think the christmas tree is a jungle gym! Can you find him in the pix below?

From Nov.09

From Nov.09

Today, we took our yearly trip to N. Conway and rode the santa train. Hailey (and Tim of course) throughly enjoyed it!

From Nov.09

From Nov.09

From Nov.09

ice skating

From Nov.09

Robin signed Luke and Alyssa up for ice skating lessons and invited us to try them out as well so I figured we would give them a shot. Taylor also joined us! Today was the first lesson and Hailey did well considering it was her first time on the ice. As you can see in the beginning she was having trouble, but by the end she could skate around a little holding only one hand. She has two more lessons and I am hoping she continues to like them because if we have to live in the north with long cold winter you might as well learn to enjoy winter sports :-)

From Nov.09

From Nov.09

From Nov.09

From Nov.09

From Nov.09

Fight for Preemies

Halloween

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

From Oct.09

cousins

Awhile ago my old laptop with all my pictures crashed, some were saved, some were lost. I just received a reminder that my photobucket account was inactive. I forget I had that account and to rediscover it was to rediscover lots of wonderful memories. I found these pix of the kids and could not resist sharing! When did they grow up?

Jordyn's Homecoming

From Jordyn's Homecoming From Jordyn's Homecoming

From Jordyn's Homecoming

From Jordyn's Homecoming

From Jordyn's Homecoming

From Jordyn's Homecoming

From Jordyn's Homecoming

From Jordyn's Homecoming

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