What took so long?!?!!!!!!?!!!!!!

It seems that those with tons of things to do, always find time to do everything. Then, there are those, like me, that probably don't have that much to do, but never find time to do anything. And so the blog suffers. WHY?

But, now I'm back. We have been pretty busy lately. We have had family in town a couple of times. We have been out of town a couple of times. We have started another project in the house. (That's started. Not finished...like most things I do.)
I didn't even check to see when the last time I posted was. So I will just try to remember a few things to make this an interesting read.

Haley is cute. Isn't that something that I say every time? Well, she is.

She now has seven teeth! Crazy. Next Sunday is her first birthday! She crawls...well, I guess you can call it a crawl.

Two hands touch the ground along with one foot and one shin/calf. It isn't the normal crawl. But she is pretty quick. To her, our two steps from the den to the living room are nothing. She can crawl up many more steps, if she wants to...or should I say, if she is allowed to.

Just like her mom, Haley LOVES popcorn.

Is it safe to feed an 11 month old popcorn? She seems to do fine with it. She can shake her head "no" like there is no tomorrow. She loves to be around the neighbor kids, unless mommy isn't there. So far she is pretty good at doing her bedtime routine... Take a bath (on bath night) which she loves. Get pajamas on. "Brush" her teeth. (this seems to be more of, get the toothbrush wet, suck up the water, repeat).

Pick out and read a bedtime book with daddy.

"Listen" (play) while mom or dad says bedtime prayers. Turn off the light.

Every once in a while she gets stuck on something and doesn't want to stop, like drinking the toothbrush water.
I spoil her too much. I can't sleep when she cries so I get up to help her go back to sleep. She is usually standing there, crying, waiting to be saved. So I pick her up and hold her. Within 5 seconds she is usually back to sleep.
She really likes to go to Aunt Caroline's house. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful babysitter. We don't know what we would do without Caroline.
Haley really likes to play with the magnets on the fridge. It fascinates her how they stick. She likes to pull them off and put them back on. Then pull them off and put them back on.

Haley has been pushing a small chair around in our primary class as she walks along. We have decided that she is growing too fast, so we don't want to help her too much with walking. She also walks along the couch and walls (not on the walls), and just about anything else. Well, she did it. She took her first solo steps today. It was during tithing settlement in the Bishop's office. She let go of Sondra's hand and came towards me. She reached out to grab my knee but didn't. She took about 3 or 4 steps then steadied herself with my knee. WHY? She is just getting too big too fast.
She is pretty funny. She likes to get her "groove" on. She likes to dance and "snap" her fingers to music. The dancing is a lot of things...bobbing her head, doing rapid squats, clapping. Snapping her fingers includes doing the finger snap motion and clicking her tongue to get the snapping sound. Its sooooooooo cute! She also likes to laugh. Its pretty fun to see her and Sondra get into a laughing contest. They just feed off of each others' laugh. I'm pretty lucky.
We took her to get a free picture with Santa at Costco. She was really interested in him from a distance. She even seemed more than willing to go to him. But once he got a hold of her, the world was coming to an end. She was screaming and ready to bolt out of there as fast as possible. We got the picture taken as fast as we could as to not torture her too much. It was cute.

We haven't been able to get Haley to wear shoes very well. She curls her toes so that her feet won't fit in the shoes. Today though, we found something that we could get her toes into...

We went to Wyoming just after my birthday in October. Sondra wanted me to have a special 30th birthday party. Thanks Sondra. It was really nice to go up there and relax, see some family and friends. Then Mom and Dad came down to Utah a couple weeks later. Sondra's Mom, oldest brother Earl, and his three kids--Kevin, Amanda, and Eric, all came over the Thanksgiving Holiday. That was fun. We were unable to do a lot of the things they did while they were here due to work, but they kept busy, and wore out Greg by the end of the week. It is really nice to see that side of the family. We rarely get to see them because they live in a different country (Texas). One thing we were able to do with Sondra's Mom and the Senkels was go to look at the lights at Temple Square. It was pretty. That week was Haley's first time to go to Temple Square.

We have done some babysitting of different children of various families, least of which was David and Kris one night when we began our Star Wars Mission of Mayhem With the Sanders. Or as I like to call it our SWMMWS. Only 5 more to go.

We have been to a couple different parties this last little while. We attended the Jones Paint and Glass/American Fork Christmas party on the 2nd. Then on the third we partied with the Jones family to celebrate an old man's birthday (just kidding Ryan). On the fourth we went to Vernal, Utah to attend the Jones Paint and Glass/Vernal Christmas party. Last night, on the 13th, we went to the Xactware Christmas party. They were all fun, and all had great food. No wonder I'm feeling a little slow and sluggish lately. I've probably gained several lbs. I won some cash the the American Fork party. Sondra won a snow ball blaster at the Xactware party. What a great party year!

We have been to Vernal a few times as of late. Just preparing to move out there in the Spring/early Summer. We are nervous for the move, but have hopes that it is the right decision.

Growing Up Fast

Haley is growing so fast. I probably say that every time. But since our last post, she has done a lot more growing up. She has started eating cereal. She seems to really enjoy eating with a spoon. She has eaten rice, oatmeal, and new today, barley. Not only does Haley like eating with a spoon, but she also likes to play spoons, or drums, or...something.

Haley is a very loving girl and loves to hug and kiss her mommy and daddy.Here are a couple of pictures from her 6 month Sears photo shoot. Its hard to imagine that she will be 8 months old this Thursday.

Haley went to Thanksgiving Point with her Mommy and Daddy. She visited the dinosaur museum. She found some dinosaurs that were just about her size. She also watched a 3-D movie in the I-Max theatre about ancient sea monsters. It was really cool. She especially liked the glasses that she got to wear.

Haley even got to hold up the world in one hand at the museum.

Recently Haley helped her Mommy and Daddy (mostly her Mommy) watch her cousins Jaden, Josie, and Jamie. For dinner they went to McDonald's and played in the Play Place. She didn't quite measure up to be able to play in it by herself. She did get in a couple of the slides, and seemed to be really interested in the shiny hardware.


Don't let those frowny faces fool you, Josie and Jamie had a lot of fun at McDonald's.















After playing at McDonald's we all went back to the Jones's house where each cousin took turns feeding Haley. Then Haley dressed up in one of her cousin's dresses. It was really cute.

Haley has really come to like playing with a lot of her toys. She really likes Shine Bright Bear. Shine Bright Bear is usually helping Haley sleep in her crib, but she gets to come out and play with Haley every now and then. Haley also enjoys playing in her excersaucer. There are a lot of toys to play with on it. The mirror is a fun toy too!

Haley is a good laugher and is pretty ticklish. She likes to have her daddy and mommy blow her belly and give her lots of kisses on her neck.
So, Haley hasn't started crawling yet, but she does scoot along on her bum, and she scoots backwards on her belly. She actually started out in the middle of the blacket before this picture was taken.


Another develpmental milestone: Teeth! We noticed a tooth one Sunday morning in Sacrament meeting and the next day she suddenly had both front bottom teeth. They are pretty sharp. Just ask her daddy's fingers!

Among many other fun things, Haley has been swimming, twice. She really likes being in the water. I guess we should have known with how much fun she has in the tub. She really likes to kick and splash her arms in the water. She also had fun being a pirate at the family reunion in Byron.

Haley was very happy to spend time with some of her cousins during the JBF Sale. She got to spend a lot of time with Veronica, Stasia, and Kiara. The did a lot of cool things. Among them are going for a walk, playing in the sprinklers, coloring, and watching movies.

Another Month Gone By

Haley keeps growing up! She just turned six months last Saturday. Can you believe it? She is so big and cute. She has experienced a lot of things over the last month.

She visited Grandma and Grandpa Sanders in Wyoming for her first time. She had a lot of fun. She really likes spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and can't wait to go back to see them again. She really liked meeting her cousins, aunts and uncles that live in that area too. She felt honored to have a special tour of Joshua and Shellie's newly constructed house. She thought it was really nice.













Haley also took a long trip to the Oregon coast. She had a lot of fun despite the cold wet weather. She saw starfish, crabs, a bald eagle, and the ocean. She watched mommy and daddy fly kites and watched her crazy daddy go into that cold Pacific water. She doesn't know why he decided to go all the way under. He said it tasted pretty salty. In Oregon she also saw a few light houses and the Tillamook Cheese Factory. And she was excited to go past Hermiston, Oregon, since Shellie Sanders had spoken so highly of it. She felt really bad that she forgot to remind her daddy to call Grandpa and Grandma Sanders to tell them Happy Anniversary while she was in Oregon. She just figured he could remember on his own. On the way to Oregon and on the way back, Haley had a lot of fun spending time with her mommy's friend Michelle and her family. She really liked them, and she thinks that they really liked her too, even if a couple of the boys kept forgetting that they needed to say she, not he, when talking about her. She thought it was silly that one of the boys was surprised that babies don't have teeth. Can't he remember what that was like? On the way back from Oregon, she even was able to cross over into Washington. She is quite the traveler, isn't she?


Haley has begun to sit up on her own. She is sooooo good! Growing up so fast. She has fun sitting, but sometimes gets too involved watching something and forgets that she has to keep holding herself up.
Haley also wanted to tell everyone how excited she was when her NBA team won the championship. It was so exciting. She thought it was cool that it was the Lakers that they beat, and that they won by 39 points.

Chocolate Milk for Haley

As we were eating lunch today after church (Cocoa Dyno-Bites and Fruity Dyno-Bites) I was holding Haley. I was trying to hold her away from my bowl of Cocoa Dyno-Bites but still be close enough not to drip chocolate milk on my church pants. I had not changed clothes because I was going to go Home Teaching in five minutes.

While I was scarfing down those scrumptiously delicious Cocoa Dyno-Bites I guess I relaxed my space restrictions for Haley. All of the sudden she slammed her right hand down onto the bowl and chocolate milk and Cocoa Dyno-Bites came flying out. It was all over the table, all over her hand, and all over my pants. I started wiping it all up with a paper towel. First her hand so she wouldn't become a chocoholic too early in life. Then my pants and the table were cleaned. All the sudden I notice Haley sucking on her hand like it was the newest thing ever to suck on. She really liked it. I guess I didn't get all the chocolate off after all. When she was done with that, she remembered that there was a bunch of chocolate milk on the table before, so she leaned forward to try and get any remnants of the chocolate off of there. So, now we have a cute little girl that is hooked on chocolate.

Here are the presents that Haley got for Mommy on Mother's Day:

The top one is a tapestry, and the bottom one is a blanket. They are really cute. Isn't Haley just SOOOOOO thoughtful?!

Something else that was really cute that I wanted to blog about happened the other day. We had just put Haley in bed because she was asleep and it was late. Sometimes when we lay her down, we move her too much and she wakes up. Well, this happened on this occasion. She laid there, really calm for just a few seconds. Looked at both Sondra and I, smiled at us really big, and then tilted her head, closed her eyes, and went to sleep. It was so cute and precious. We love our little girl.

Another cute bedtime story happened a few days later. Haley had fallen asleep and was in bed. It was pretty late when she started to fuss. It can be fairly disappointing when you think she is asleep, and then wakes up for hours. But a couple of minutes after she started fussing, I looked her in the eye and said, "Haley, it is late. You need to calm down, close your eyes, and go to sleep." Amazingly, she stopped fussing. then a couple of seconds later, she closed her eyes, and slept the rest of the night! She is so good! I know it was just a coincidence, but it was really cute.

We have already mentioned that Haley rolls over now. But the other day she rolled over from her back to her tummy to her back to her tummy, all within a half of a minute. Well, now we have a mobile baby. We will have to get bigger Tummy Time Blankets.

Haley has taken a new interest in the ceiling fan. I think this is due to the fact that we have actually started using it. It is getting pretty warm. She likes to look at it as it is spinning around.

We are unsure of what this means, but Haley really likes to move her arm up and down. Is she going to be a music director, or an Atlanta Braves fan?...

We attended Stasia's pre-school graduation yesterday. It was cute. All the kids did really well. They all dressed up for different parts for the various songs. Stasia was dressed up for the last song and was "A child of God" for the song "I Am a Child of God." Her friend dressed up as a witch for the Halloween song. I guess Stasia says that she is a child of God, and Pyper (her friend) is a witch.

While we were up in Syracuse, Haley and Sondra participated in a half mile run, walk. They had fun and got a T-shirt.

Haley wanted to say, "Go Celtics!" But she can't.

I tried making empenadas the other day. They were okay, but the crust was pretty hard. I almost chipped a tooth trying to bite into it.