Hayley Ann Mae: Six Months

Half a year old! Say it isn't so! I was hoping that, being our last, time would slow a tad, but it has not, so here we are with a 6 month old already!
Hayley is just pure joy to be around! There is no other way to describe her. She is happy 99.9% of the time, and flashes a smile for anyone who looks her way. The newest thing she has learnt is to give hugs and kisses and it is my favorite thing ever! First she grabs my hair at the bottom of my neck with both hands, then lunges towards my face with her mouth wide open and eats (kisses) me. It is the most adorable thing ever and she gets so excited when she does it.
She is thoroughly enjoying food and is up to two meals a day. Over the next month we will be introducing pieces of food and weaning off of purees.
Even though we call her Lady Hayley, she is absolutely the least ladylike of all our children. Spit ups are multiple times a day, she needs a bath after almost every meal and I've lost track of the number of diaper explosions...good things she's super cute!
The first 6 months with Hayley have been nothing short of amazing and we can't wait to see all she does in the second part of her first year!

Stats: weight 17lbs 1oz (72%) height 26.25 inches (72%)

Sleep: Not too much has changed she sleeps 12 hours at night and most days takes 3 naps, sometimes she will take 2 if her last nap is long.

Social: Everyone comments on how alert Hayley is and it's true, she doesn't like to miss a thing. If she is in the mix of things she is one happy girl.

Diet: Hayley is down to 4 bottles a day with two meals, breakfast and dinner. In addition to the foods she tried last month, we have added plums and apples, peas, carrots, and butternut squash to her diet.

Skills/Milestones: Completely sitting on her own is at the top of the list here. She has rolled over back to front. Has said Dada/Daeee. 

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

Weekend Recap

This past weekend was full of fun, family time and summer sun. Saturday we decided to get out of the house and normal routine and do something fun, so we headed to Dutch Wonderland. James had been when he was a child but neither myself or the boys had been, but we've heard great things. Just in case the boys decided they didn't like the rides we purchase the twilight tickets which gave us access to the park for the last 3 hours of the day, and with Hayley in tow that was the perfect amount of time for her to be toted around in the stroller. Mom Mom and Pop Berry came along for the fun also! We had the.best.time.ever! As soon as the boys had finished their first ride they were on a roll. They loved the spinning hot air balloon ride and the motorized car ride. We even got them on the log flume, Chase wasn't so sure about it, but Asher was all about getting wet! Needless to say we all want to head back there soon to try the rides we missed and hit the water park!

The fun continued on Sunday with a day spent at the pool with Dad, Jen, Naomi and David. The weather was perfect, the boys jumped into the pool for an hour straight while shouting "INCOMING!!" and Hayley cried every time we took her out of the pool. We rounded out the weekend with dinner at Red Robin, ice cream sundaes included. 

Granny is Here: Week 4

We are sad for this week to arrive as it was Grandma's last week with us. I remember when Grandma booked her tickets to come over and she suggested a month, I thought yeah that's a great amount of time, it won't go by too quickly etc. How wrong I was! We were adamant to not left her impending departure ruin our last week together, so we finished strong, making many more great memories.

One day we met up with Lauren and her girls for a trip to Oregon Dairy Farm out in Lancaster. They were having a family fun day complete with planting seeds, petting animals (including the cutest chicks), tractor rides and farm tours. Oh and free chocolate milk and ice cream for all!!!

Unfortunately Saturday was pretty crummy weather so a trip to the Aquarium sounded perfect. The boys had been asking to go so they were pretty excited we were finally getting there. We spent most of the day there; petting the sting rays, watched the penguins being fed and got to see the hippos close up. Everyone enjoyed walking through the shark tunnel, even Hayley got to partake, waking up from her nap just in time. We ended our time there with a walk across the shark bridge. All of the boys loved it so much that they had to go back and do it a second time.

Grandma's last full day with us was also Father's Day. If you come visit us during the summer months a trip to the beach is always a must, so we loaded up the van and headed down to Lewes for the day. It was our first time to the beach with 3 kids and boy that one extra little being needs sooo much stuff and I'm not going to lie the first hour was a tad chaotic. However the boys settled in and Hayley found a comfy spot and we all had the.best.day!!! Chase and Asher spent 90% of their time in the water swimming around like fish. Hayley dipped her toes in and couldn't decide if she liked the waves or not. Grandma was happy to spend her last day in full sunshine and working on her tan. Before heading home we wanted to get some dinner. We have a couple of restaurants that we usually rotate between but decided to try some where new this time and it didn't disappoint. The Crooked Hammock was ah-mazing. The food was good but it was the atmosphere that sold it for us. Lots of backyard games, playground and live music kept us all entertained. We ate slowly, drank plenty (not me I was driving lol) and soaked up every last minute with each other that we could.

We were all so sad to see Grandma/Granny leave. We had all gotten into our new routine and none of us wanted it to end. The boys loved loved loved having her here and I'm so glad they got to spend so much time with her and really get to know her. And for her to get to know them of course. I can't explain how much I enjoyed getting to spend so much time with someone, who I got to see multiple times a week as a child. I got to hear stories about her and Grandad that I had never heard before.
We can't wait for her next visit, and next time maybe she will stay even longer!!

Granny is Here: Week 3

The third week with Granny didn't slow down, we had lots of fun days out together.
One the Saturday went to a Golden Age air show. It was a neat little show with lots of stunts and theatrics. Everyone enjoyed being outside in the beautiful weather. That same night James and I took Grandma to Painting with a Twist, as her birthday gift. I figured any year I can send her something in the mail and so thought it would be fun to do something together and she gets to take her painting home with her as a memory of what we did. I think James and Grandma were a little worried at first about painting, but a couple of glasses of wine later and we were all having a great time. It was nice to have a few hours with Grandma sans kids and we were all pleased with our paintings.



While Grandma was here, our church had Dedication Sunday. It was so special that she got to a part in seeing Hayley being dedicated.

We spent the Monday & Tuesday at the pools by us where Hayley got to hangout on the splash pad for the first time, and celebrate turning 5 months old!

When anyone from out of town comes to visit, we always take a trip to Longwood Gardens. Its beautiful to see and walk around, but with Grandma being a florist I knew Grandma would thoroughly enjoy it.