Halloween

This year we decided to dress up as a biker gang. It was super easy to put together and they turned out to be pretty cute biker babes. 

Hadley took to trick-or-treating like a fish to water, she loved it! It wasn't even the candy that she really enjoyed, she loved going up to each person and saying trick-or-treat and then proceeded to tell them about her bike and "hat" and her baby sister. People dressed up in scary costumes or masks she would just stare at and try and figure out if she liked them or not. I've never been a huge Halloween fan, but it is sure alot more fun with cute little kids to dress up!

My friend and I had some fun with Ellie and her baby Nora 

Updates

Lots of updates below, and more to come. 

Ellie JoAnn

Ellie is 9 months old now, i can hardly believe it. Time has gone in the blink of an eye. Ellie is growing like crazy, and reaching new milestones everyday it seems. She is such a happy baby, such a change from the way she began her life. She is either deliriously happy, or screaming upset, she does not seem to have a middle ground. 

Here are some things to remember about Ellie 

- Crawling like a champ, began at 7 months much unlike her sister who didnt make a move until she was 11 months old

- Pulls up on everything, starting to walk along things as well 

- Loves bath time

- Love to be outside

- Love her big sister, has to always be right in the middle of whatever she is doing.

- Has two (almost three) teeth

- Loves playing with Daddy

- Hates getting dressed, cries every time

- Loves to eat, her favorites are crackers, sweet potatoes, spaghetti, and bananas

- Hates to be left out, has to be in the middle of everything

- Loves swimming and playing in the water

- Loves bike rides

- Throws little fits if you take something away that she was playing with

- Is a very sensitive little girl. Scares easily, cries easily, doesn't like to play rough

- Likes to cuddle
- Makes the best faces, makes so many funny faces and expressions

- Loves to Facetime with Grandpa and Grandma

- Not the best sleeper, still wakes up once a night between 4am and 6am to eat. Struggles with nap times as well

We are so glad to have Elle-bell in our family. She is such a happy and loving baby. 

Photos of Ellie

One week old

 

 Daddy and Ellie

Blessing Day

 First bath

 First time at Church

 All the spiky hair!

Happy Girl

 First rice cereal

 Easter 2012

 Happy Baby

 The many expressions of Ellie

Loves to eat

 

Summer time

Ellie

 My original due date with Ellie was January 7th, but she decided to spice things up and make her appearance 2 weeks early on Christmas day no less. 
Kenley and I were joking as we were laying down to sleep on Christmas Eve, that baby sister just had to hold off being born for another 24 hours so we could enjoy Christmas with Hadley. 5 minutes later my water broke. I had felt fine all day, no contractions what so ever, so it was a huge shock and a bit ironic that we now were going to have a baby on Christmas Day. I called my friend Heather, who was so incredibly amazing to come and stay with Hadley and to have her be part of her own families Christmas. I was heartbroken to leave Hadley and not be with her on Christmas, but Heather was so great to take care of her and it made it a bit easier knowing she was enjoying christmas and not missing us. Thanks Heather! We got to the hospital around 2 am, and i was really beginning to feel the contractions and pain. They checked me and said i was 5-6 cm dilated. A few min later a different nurse came in and check me again and said that i was actually 7-8 cm dilated. Everything switched into high gear then.  They were hurrying around trying to get my IV in, asking the millions of question they have to ask, trying to set up for delivery, trying to find a doctor. It was all quite chaotic and scary. All i wanted was my epidural and for the insane amount of pain to stop. Well the epidural never came, and the doctor barely made it in time. At 3:53 am Ellie JoAnn Holt was born. One hour and 53 min after arriving at the hospital i had my baby girl. It was an out of body experience, i was scared to death yet relatively calm. Thinking back on it, so many things could have gone wrong, but everything workout just fine in the end. I most surely do not want to have another baby without an epidural again if i can help it, but empowering and reassuring to know that i can do it without. In the end i was just grateful for my new healthy (Christmas gift) baby girl.

Photos of Hadley

Playing Rapunzle

Outfit choice of the day

Bowling as a family

 

Swimming in her pool

Pushing Ellie in her baby stoller

Playing house

Sisters

Jumping on the trampoline

Playing at the river

Proud of her playdough tower

Multitasking, feeding baby sister and working on her laptop. Looks like she 

has been watching her Daddy!

Helping mommy make dinner

Flying a kite with Daddy

 

Finger painting disaster

Hadley Kaye

Hadley is now nearly two and a half years old. She has really grown up so much in the last six months, i look at her and see only glimpses of my once little baby girl. She is a very independent little girl, her new saying theses days is " i do it my self mom"
She is such a great big sister, she is so kind to Ellie and loves to make her laugh. 
Here are some things that i want to remember about her at this stage in life. 

- Loves to color and do projects
- Loves to do puzzles and look at books
- Loves to play dress up and picking out her own outfits for the day
- Loves playing with her play kitchen and cooks me food all day long, also loves helping me make dinner
- Learned to swim all by her self this summer, can swim without floaties
- Loves to sing, she sings random songs all day long and loves to sing in the bathtub and very loudly at church
- Can count to 12 (forgets 5 usually thou)
- Knows all of her letters
- Knows all of her colors, and shapes
- Loves to learn, is in a preschool coop this fall
- Loves to play with friends, but is going through a pushing and hitting phase that is not so fun
- Loves nursery at church, all week long she asks if we are going to church yet
- Loves to play with her Dad outside
- is SUPER loud, she has no concept of volume and is constantly reminded to use her inside voice ( which doesn't help much!)
- Is a pretty picky eater, Her favorite foods are applesauce, anything with peanut butter, cheese, beans, potatoes, noodles and yogurt 
- Still takes a great nap during the day, and sleeps great at night in her big girl bed
- Loves to go to the library, the car wash, and Lowes
- Working on potty training, her stubborn streak sure shines though and is making it difficult. She may go to kindergarden in diapers! 

We sure love Hadley. She is a happy, sassy, independent, fun loving little girl.