Travelin' and Playin'

We have been scolded a couple of times now by a very good relative of ours about our lack of blogging for the last 4 or 5 months. We thought we should remedy that, so that, next time we see her, we won't be as guilty...

We have done a lot of things over the last few months. For starters, after six months of being apart, this sign finally ended up in our front lawn. It was nice to sell our house. We only wish we could have sold it faster and for more money.
But, now we have sold it, and we are back together, everyday!



We have done a lot of traveling. It has been fun, but sometimes kind of tiring. Since I have a different schedule at my "new" job, I have three day weekends quite often. We have taken advantage of those by going to Wyoming 4 times in the last 5 months. Other traveling we have done: Texas twice, Utah County, a few times, and Syracuse two or three times.

Haley has done a lot of growing up during this time. It IS a shame that I don't blog more often. It would be easier to remember all the cute little things she has done. What a terrible father I am.

Haley enjoys going on walks. Sometimes she even wants to ride in the wrong spot in her Jeep stroller. I think she may have learned that from one of her baby sitters.



She really enjoys playing with other kids, and especially her cousins. Here she is giving one of her cousins a goodbye hug. Or maybe its a "don't worry, we will get more candy. I'll show you how its done" hug.



I am sure they were watching something amusing on the ceiling at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Those three have a lot of fun together.



One of the first things Haley does upon arriving at Grandma and Grandpa's house it to get the barn and animals down and play with them. She loves all the toys there.



Haley has become a pretty good self-feeder. She still can make a pretty good mess, but she is so cute, the messes seem cute too (sometimes).

Doesn't everybody like to make noise? Haley was going through each page in the Christmas song book saying, "This one daddy?" and when I told her yes, she would "play" the song.

Its a good thing we have taught her how to brush her teeth! Even little ones can get stuff stuck in their teeth.

Haley loves to play on her daddy. If he is laying down, Haley will jump on, lay on, play on, stand on, or sit on him.

Here is a picture of Sondra and I getting ready to go to her 10 year high school reunion. We had a lot of fun driving in the rain, walking a few blocks in the rain, and visiting with some of her old friends. She lost her voice because she had to yell in everyone's ears in order for them to be able to hear her over the music. Isn't she pretty? Now you all are reminded of where Haley gets her looks!

On one of our trips to Texas, we visited my brother Jeff in Houston. While there we went to a MLB game. It was my first ever. We watched the Braves beat the Astros. Yay!

Also while in Houston, we went to the zoo. Haley got to see a lot of animals. She even got to pet some. At first she needed a little protection...

But then she could do it all by herself.

She still needed a little help petting the lizards and other reptiles.

Hey, its Haley! I didn't know they had any of those in the zoo! Isn't she the cutest animal?

Here is Haley, reminding her daddy that she loves him.

We weren't the most exciting guests that Jeff has had. But the kids enjoyed us. Ok, they all enjoyed us. Jeff was just a little sleepy. Thanks for letting us stay at your house for a couple of nights. We will have to do it again sometime.

Not only did we attend a Major League Baseball game, but we also attended a Little League Baseball game of Haley's cousin. They sure do play with big baseballs in Little League!

Here is another example of what I was talking about earlier. Daddy layed down next to Haley to watch something on TV with her. Next thing you know, she is sitting on him, watching TV without him.

One of our visits to Syracuse included a visit with Haley's Grandfather and Dorothy. She really enjoyed it. It was her first time to meet Grandfather Burdick. Hopefully she will see him and Dorothy again soon.

Haley enjoys her Grandpa Sanders too. She asked him to read a book to her.

Here, Grandpa is entertaining Haley and Matthew. They really got a kick out of seeing themselves on the TV.

We didn't bring him along, but Haley was able to find Mr. Potato Head and Grandma and Grandpa's house. Or as she calls him, Tater Top.

Somehow, Haley managed to get into one of Mommy's shirts. She had a lot of fun in it. She was even able to get a lot of powder on it from a powder coated cookie.

Haley has been able to explore a couple of different playgrounds in Vernal. It is starting to get a little too cold to play on them now, but they have been fun so far.

Mommy and Haley have been practicing the "We're So Glad When Daddy Comes Home" song. Here she is squeezing my cheeks towards the end of the song.

Just thought I would show everyone our new apartment. It is a two bedroom apartment with 1 and 1/2 bathrooms. It is smaller than our house was, but we are getting used to it. It is just nice to be together.

Time Apart...

We have been trying to get our house ready to sell. No takers yet. We have shown it several times, but no one has decided to buy it yet. We have put a lot of work into it. Haley has even helped out a little. We have painted the porch. Sondra took quite a while scraping off paint before we could paint it. Haley helped with the scraping. We have tried to make our counter top in the kitchen look nicer. Hopefully it does, and ... I am almost done with it. We re-did the roof of our porch as well. That was a couple week process. When I was finally able to start putting up the tar paper and shingle, a neighbor came over and helped me with it. He spent his whole day helping me. That was really nice. Sondra is constantly cleaning the house making it "ready to show." We have probably had on average 2-3 showings each week since we have put it up for sale.

Since it has been soooooooooooooo long since I last did this, there is a lot that has happened. Easter came. That was fun. Haley really liked finding Easter eggs. She was really fun to watch. She really liked the fake grassy stuff that you put in Easter baskets. She liked to pull it out of the basket and get it all over the place. She had a couple of Easter egg hunts. One at home and one at the church. It is fun to see her get so excited about things.





We bought Haley an Easter dress. It is very cute. Our neighbor was really nice and took pictures of her in her dress. These are only a few of the pictures.





We bought Haley a sit-and-spin. She likes it. We didn't even have to show her how it works. She just got on it and started spinning herself around.



We aren't sure when to start her on "The Training." I guess it's never too early. She really liked sitting on these too. One of them does a celebration noise when something passes through it. I think her diaper was big enough to set it off. Anyway, she got the celebration noise quite often, without really using it the way it is intended to be used.



She even likes sitting here. Hopefully we can teach her the proper amount of paper to use.



Haley was invited to her cousin's birthday party. She had a lot of fun. It was at a little kids gym. They played a lot of games and did a lot of activities. She was very excited about all the fun things that they had to do there.









I am not sure what this next picture is all about, but I know she has an infatuation with her belly button. She always finds it when we take her shirt off, or when she doesn't have a onesie to block it. She is really cute. I know she doesn't get the whole love of the belly button thing from me. I get nervous if I think it is going to be touched. It just seems like a very vulnerable spot.



Her she is again, enjoying her first Tootsie Pop, and her belly button. She did really good with the Tootsie Pop. She ate it all, minus the stuff that got on her face, of course.



Sondra has introduced Haley to Milano cookies. Like most food, Haley really likes them. Isn't she getting so big. And her hair is getting so much longer.

Haley began folding her arms. Out of nowhere. I'd like to say that we taught her to, but she did it on her own. She started folding her arms during prayers and blessings. What a good girl!

We went for a walk one day when it was kind of rainy. We put a rain jacket on Haley. She really liked it. She wanted to wear it the next few times when we went for a walk, even in sunny, warm weather.

We went to the zoo on Memorial Day with Haley and her cousins. There was a lot of people there. We didn't have all day to look around, so we didn't see everything, and what we did see was mostly a quick walk-by. But it was fun. At lunch however, we were dive-bombed by a bird. It hit the pizza, one of our hands, and the back of my shirt. Gross!!! The kids really liked the carousel.

Haley is going to be a good big sister, or mother. Which ever one comes next for her. She loves taking care of her babies. She feeds them, walks them, puts them down for naps. She is so loving. What a cute girl!

Sondra bought some things at a yard sale. Among them are some Barbie cars. The Barbie in this car is very beautiful. She likes riding in (on) the cars. She also likes riding bikes, and walking, and pretty much anything that is outside. And a lot of things inside. It really is easy to have fun with Haley and help her have fun. Obviously it isn't always a happy time. But she really is for the most part very easy going, loving, and happy.

I have been traveling back and forth from Vernal. I come home on the weekends and an occasional stop in the middle of the week. It has been hard to be away from my family so much. I miss them dearly. It is so nice to be with them when I can. It seems I can't give Haley enough attention when I am home. That makes me feel really good that she loves her daddy so much. It is somewhat tiring, but I wouldn't want it any other way. Sondra is very good to me as well. She really takes care of me and Haley. We both know who to go to when we are sad or hurt. Mommy. Hopefully we can all be together everyday soon. I am looking forward to that time.