Hayley's Dedication

We have had both boys dedicated to the Lord, so of course we had Hayley dedicated also. Our faith is very important to us individually and as a family. God is spoken about in our home, we pray (for the little and big things), Bible stories are read etc. On June 11th we had her dedicated at our church followed by lunch with our family afterwards.
Prayers were answered for us to have them, for the things we are able to give to them. Therefore it's important to us that Chase, Asher and Hayley grow up knowing and loving God, that they attend church and are actively involved.
Both James and I fully believe each one of our children are gifts from God to us, each created perfectly in their own way. We can't wait to see what God has in store for our precious girl, the baby we struggled to have, but in God's time gave us what we never knew we so longed for, a little girl to call our daughter. She is truly remarkable and we can't wait to see what life has in store for her.

Hayley Ann Mae: Five Months

With each day Hayley is becoming more interactive and her little personality shines. Five months has bought lots of new changes including; trying to sit on her own, and introducing solid foods. She is still the happiest baby I've ever known, only to cry if she is tired or hungry.
She got to meet and spend lots of time with Granny, she is a fan for sure! Asher and Chase are still her #1 guys, next to Daddy of course, and Cisco has become very interesting to her.
This month she tried out the pool and splash pad for the first time. She loves her bath so I assumed she would enjoy taking a dip and she did. She took some great naps afterwards also.
She is just pure sweetness that we squeeze all day long!

 



Stats: No official checkup this month but her legs are getting chunkier by the day and her 3 to 6 month clothing is fitting just perfectly.

Sleep: I need to thank the Lord for not only giving us a healthy baby but one likes to sleep also. I don't know how I would function with 3 kids if she wasn't a good sleeper. On a normal day she is doing 3 naps and going to bed around 8pm and waking around 7:30am. She has started taking naps in her bassinet and puts herself to sleep for naps and bedtime. Though sometimes I do still snuggle and rock her for bedtime, just because I can.

Social: This girl is going to be the life of the party. She likes to know and see all what is going on around her and not miss her thing. She is quite nosey in fact. Feeding her has become a tad difficult sometimes because of this.

Diet: Still drinking 6oz every 3 to 4 hours. The big story this month is we added solid food to her diet. I normally wait until 5 months but her spitting up is still pretty bad, even though she is on zantac so I wanted to give her some weight in her stomach to see if it helped and it has. So far she has tried; avocado, green beans, banana, oatmeal and sweet potatoes.

Skills/Milestones: Sitting while supporting herself has been added to the list of achievements this month. She love love loves this new found ability and wants no part in lying down. She is thoroughly enjoying her exersaucer. Hayley will now grab your cheeks and lean in with her mouth open, I swear she is giving kisses.

 

Favorites: Mummy, Daddy, Chase, Asher, Cisco looooves music and being sung to, enjoys bath time, her exersaucer, playing in water.

Granny is Here: Week 2

The second week we had a couple of days at home, made bird feeders, went back to Marsh Creek lake for a picnic and to play in the water, and we visited family up in Connecticut.

Grandma's niece lives in Stonington, CT and we thought it would be fun to pay her a visit. James unfortunately had to work so he stayed at home with Cisco. It was Hayley's first road trip and she did great. If we weren't stopped to feed her, then she was sleeping!

 After traveling for the day we took it easy, caught up with Ruth and dinner. The second day we explored the town of Stonington, its a quaint town, not touristy and beautiful. We hit the park, right next to the water, grabbed lunch at a little café and spent the afternoon playing in the sand and water. Somehow the boys still had energy, and played outside in Ruth's garden rolling down banks and jumping off tree trunks.

 



Our third day we were heading home but not until the evening so it gave us the whole day to fit in a few more fun activities. We headed over to Mystic and while there is a ton to do there we skipped all the attractions and had a quieter day. We took the boys to an ice cream shop that sat next to the town drawbridge, great view and best ice cream I've had. The boys ran off some energy at a playground and we ended the day by taking a walk next to the water and got to see the drawbridge go up. The boys were fascinated and I'm so glad it worked out that they got to see that.



We really had the best time and are planning on heading back this summer, with James in tow.

Granny is Here: Week 1

May, the month when school winds down, summer unofficially starts and when Granny comes to visit!!! With it taking her two days to travel from Exmouth to us here in America, she decided to stay for close to a month, which we fully approved of. The kids took to her pretty much immediately and are loving having Granny here when they wake up in the mornings. It's been wonderful having her here for so much time as we don't have to cram a ton of stuff into a short amount of time, but have had some laid back days at home, mixed with some fun days out.

After Grandma had settled in for a day or so we decided to take her to Oley Dairy Farm, a favorite place of ours to go and feed the goats. It got off to a wet start with a random rain shower but we waited out the rain and had a fun afternoon feeding the goats and playing on the playground.

Instead of calling Grandma for her birthday, this year we got to celebrate together and it was such a fun day, spoiling her! We opened cards and presents in the morning before heading to Winterthur for the day. We had been to Winterthur recently and thought Grandma would really enjoy seeing the gardens. Before heading home for cake, we took her out for a birthday meal to McKenzies. The weather was beautiful and we got to enjoy dinner out on the patio.

 

 

Even though the weather wasn't ideal, after church, we took a trip to Marsh Creek Lake. Armed with nets the boys were determined to catch minnows, yet those tiny fish were just too fast. A good time was had though and an ice cream stop on the way home made for great day.

 



We rounded out Grandma's first week with a BBQ on memorial day, a trip to the bowling alley, the boys acquired Lightning McQueen scooters thanks to Granny, and an evening at the pool where Hayley dipped her toes in the for the first time.