New Year, New Beginnings

I am very excited to head into he new year of 2011. Hayden will be starting in a Pre-K program 2 mornings a week - doesn't that sound fun?! She will have the interaction with other children her age, learn social skills, sharing, and the "schooling" aspect of it will help her attention span and listening skills. She will have to listen to someone other than mommy daddy or a family member and will have to follow the rules. I am nervous that she may be the "wild child" in the class but if we never do this, she will never learn, right? She is learning so much so fast it amazes me already! As the new year begins I am changing some things in my own schedule as well. I am studying to get my insurance license! I am also cutting back on cleaning houses so that I am not so overwhelmed. I love both jobs but it sure takes it toll on me. With Justin back at Bowater, this is allowing us to get our budget back into place and start looking up! I am also taking one day off of both jobs a week to spend with Hayden. Justin and I are hoping and praying for another new and healthy addition to our family by the end of 2011! I am excited for that as well (of course) Hayden would be 3 years old before the new arrival and I think that is a good age difference. I pray that God will work it all out in His timing. I know He will!

Christmas 2010 was awesome! It is so much fun being a mom to a 2yr old! I was just as excited this year as I was when I was a kid on Christmas morning. :) She has some really cool and fun toys and I get to play with her. lol. She got all kinds of play doh stuff, rain boots, the cutest monogramed bookbag, games, clothes.... A baby doll and puppy from Great Grandmama, a tent from Grammie, all kinds of stuff from Nana including a really big tinkerbell coloring book, a pillow pet, and cute outfits. All kinds of princess stuff from Aunt Paige, Grammie and others. Puzzles from Christina, A shopping cart and pretend food from Aunt Sara and Ricky, PJ's and a robe from Aunt NeNe, a Clemson shirt, huge cereal bowl and towel set from Daddy Pop, she got dvd's including Veggietales and Barney's Christmas Adventure from great Aunts. Great Grandma got her a Beginner's Bible and mommy thinks that is one of the coolest gifts! I know I loved mine when I was little so I am hoping and thinking she will too! Phew, she got a lot!

We played in the snow the day after Christmas and had a lot of fun but it was so cold and Hayden face planted a few times so we ended up going in the house shortly after. We stayed out for about an hour and a half though which is a long time really. We took the sled down a hill at a church down the road and tried to build a snowman in our yard. Hayden loved it. We put her in the bath when we got in not realizing that we should have waited for her body temp to rise ... so poor thing was so cold and then went into warm water and it made her wrist and ankles look like they were about to blister. Thankfully it went away quickly but that was scary and lesson learned!!

All in all I am so happy in my life and looking forward to what the new year and God's plan has in store for my family!

(Our house is STILL on the market -- I wish it would sell, other than that we are good as gold ;))

Carving Pumkpins

We are always planning stuff to do now with these fun holidays and a little girl at a really fun age! It is fall - ah, I love fall - so we went to the Peach Orchard last weekend. Hayden got to hold cute little bunnies, and there was this huge 19lb rabbit too!! Grammie helped Hayden decorate a planter and they planted a pansie! We rode a horse carriage to the other side, went through a hay maze, and got ice cream! Hayden wanted to hold the cone but she would gladly share, just DON'T take the cone! ;) Today we planned to carve pumpkins. We were getting all the stuff out from the inside and asked Hayden to stick her hands in and help and she said "No mommy, hands dirty" lol As if she just did not want to get her hands dirty from the inside of the pumpkin. haha. We made her do it anyway b/c she really or usually doesn't mind getting dirty and she was fine! It was cute though!

She does so many cute things! She will call everyone "friend" She will pull the blinds up in the living room, look out and if someone is walking or outside across the street she will yell "Hey Friend" lol. She will see a baby or child in the grocery store and say "friend mommy, friend" Sounds more like "fiend" but I understand her! She looves other babies so much! She wants to get right in their face and "help" anyway that she can. She loves her cousin Peyton! She will try to "tickle" her and try to help feed her or give her the paci. It is precious! I think she will be a greta helper when she has a little brother or sister! She will be 3 by then I am sure so she will be even more of a help and she will be more independent herself which will be a help to mommy! ;) Justin and I are talking about our options now so hopefully we will have another baby in 2011 or sometime around then!! It is exciting to me to have a sibling for Hayden! I know having a big family means so much to me now and esp when I was a kid! I just think it will be tough going through the infant stage but time flies so we will be alright!

Justin is about to start 2nd shift (instead of 3rd) and I am really thinking that I am going to like it a lot! We will get our nights together back and he will be able to get a good amount of sleep and able to get up have family time or help with watching Hayden while I work and not be worn out all the time! I hope it will be as great as I am thinking! He sure is wonderful though! He is such a hard worker and I appreciate him so much! We have really been trying to work with each other and help each other out as much as we can lately and it feels so nice! Sometimes we forget to do these things and when we are reminded that we are not alone it is wonderful! I love the connection we have and the bond! He is my hero! .... okay so done with the cheesyness! haha!

On another note... I am sure ready for Christmas... not really Christmas to be here but for the shopping and wrapping! I am ready to get stuff together for everyone! We are cutting back a lot this year and I have already gotten a little done to space things out but I am still excited to give something! We are going to make some pretty cool gifts to be from Hayden too and I think it is going to turn out sooo great!

Ahhh *exhale*

My blogspot, oh how I have missed you so! Being without a computer has been tough! A good person let me borrow one for now and we will soon be in the market for our next one. However, this one I am using is a mini one so if I type all funky spelling words, please just excuse me haha! So I love to write updates on keeping up with Hayden and I haven"t been able to do that lately. She is so very .... what is a nice word for stubborn, or hard-headed or strong willed? LOL She is definately a 2 year old! She is wonderful though for sure but I can see the small changes in her wanting to make decisions for herself event o the little things like what she is going to eat. She has never been a picky eater but lately if it isn't what she wants, she isn't going to eat it. I have had to really work on being consistent with all that I say to her to try to teach her the correct way of doing things. It is really hard to do this. I would not have thought it to be hard just to stick to your guns and follow through with it but boy is it tough! We are changing out her door knob in her room and were missing a piece so for a couple nights we weren't able to shut the door all the way as usual and Hayden thought she could just get up and come out of her room at night after we put her down for bed. I would have to end up spanking her to get her to listen but you know she knows better! She would come to the door and peek out and you would hear 2 little feet running back to her bed. You'd go in there and she would be pretending to be asleep. Tell me that wouldn't be hard not to just laugh it off, and maybe even let her stay up and hang out with you or go to sleep with you.... if I did, though, it would make it so much worse in the long run! So here and now... this early on starts the buckling down, strong yet heart-breaking, and loving dicipline! She is a lot of fun now too! She is starting to hear you out and trying to understand "reasoning". We still like to walk and play at the park or with other friends and we go to the gym a couple times a week so she gets interaction there. She does so well in church sunday school and Wed night classes too! Listens well to the teachers instructions and really enjoys the crafts and lessons. It is so cute actually! We are still potty training! I wish I could say she was trained and I am not saying she isn't (or couldn't be at this point) but ike I said, she likes to make her own decisions and this is one of them. I stay on her and so does anyone she is with and she will go but she will not say that she needs to go before she just goes in panties. She most always stays dry during her naps and she stays in panties for them too. She just needs to learn to say "I need to tkae a break from whatever I am doing and sit on the potty" She has not ime for it. haha... too busy!

On another note: Our house is on the market (since June) and no interest yet! :( December will be 6 months and we will take it off with the realtor and do it by owner. Hopefully interest some investors and we will be able to lower or price a little. I am just ready to move on. We have been here 4 years and Justin even longer. 2 bedrooms doesn't give you enough room to expand a family either ;). Praying for the right things to happen and of course knowing that God has a plan always makes life easier to understand!

Good night all!!

One after another....

I have so much to blog about and so little time. Our home computer is broke right now so I can't enjoy sitting up at night and blogging so I am trying to fit some time in here at work :/ Hayden will be 2 in 2 weeks!! I cannot believe how fast this is going by! She is so much fun and so smart... turning into my little toddler princess! I don't even call her a baby anymore. She has so much independence wanting to walk everywhere we go and wanting to do things on her own without mommy and daddy's help. She wants to stand in the kitchen chair and help me with dinner. She wants to push the stroller everywhere and will tell me things now like she is teaching me something new. It is precious!
POTTY TRAINING:
This has been one of new tasks that we are trying to tackle and it is going rather smoothly - as of now! (I hear that toddlers have a mind of their own and they choose when to and when not to potty on the big potty.) With the help of Nana Shay we are making really good progress! She does best when she runs around diaper free... it is like she makes the decision on her own to sit on the potty seat and go. It is so funny because the other day she was so excited that she had pooped on her own that she got up and ran to tell us but she wasn't quite finished and there were little drops on the floor. With panties on she will catch herself because she can feel when she is wet and she will grab the panties and say"potty!" and run to the bathroom. Now with diapers, she doesn't care - as much! Sometime she will say it and sometimes you will never know. It is all in the training though - getting her to know the sensation feeling from potty-ing and be able to know when to go. She will go potty every night before bed and nap and right when she wakes up from either! She has been waking up dry from her nap for a few days now and this morning was the first morning she woke up dry from bed, which is awesome!!! She went pee pee before we left the house this morning and lasted 2.5 hours dry and pee-pee'd on the potty at the Kohls Dept Store! I thought that was great too, of course! I would say we got started teaching her around 22 months if not earlier but we have really "buckled down" over these past 2-3 weeks! Nana bought her some really neat panties that are thick in the middle but they still feel when they wet themselves and you can also put a plastic panty over them so they don't wet their clothes. With it being summer time, it is easier though for her to run around in a dress for easy potty training! So all in all, potty training has not been to terrible of an experience for us here. We tried to reward pottying with m&ms but she really doesn't care for that... a simple, well a little over the top praising goes a long way for Miss Hayden! :)

Weekend of June 25-27th

What a great weekend! I love good full on family weekends when hubby Hayden and I can all 3 just do fun things together and not have a care in the world! I sure do love being a mommy and a wife! We live on a pretty tight schedule and most ppl that know me know that when it is Hayden's bedtime... I ain't playing around. This weekend I decided (with a little help the influences around me chanting for me just to let her stay up and not to worry so much about it) to actually not live by a schedule for once. SO the weekend started Friday morning when Justin gt home from work and got us all pumped up to go swimming. We went to nana and paw paws swimming pool, just the 3 of us, and played. Hayden got to slide and eventually wanted to do it on her own... I know I know, we will no more let her climb the slide and go alone but I really wanted to get it on video and Justin needed to be at the bottom to catch her. Check it out on my facebook page! Saturday we headed over to Jen and Dave's for a cookout with some of the mommies on YCM and afterward we just hung around with them. Justin and Dave get along very well and that is a good thing b/c Jen and I are pretty good friends and Hayden and Connor are like best friends. ;) It is so fun to get them two together. You can just tell they enjoy each others company when they see the other walk in the room they just light up. They are more alike than any two kids I know and I think Jen and I are a lot alike as well. So those influeneces I was talking about, lol, convinced me to stay and hang out after 7:30 (H's bedtime) and Hayden did so good! She just played and played. A neighbor of theirs cam over as well and they have a 4yo daughter so Hayden had someone to play with since Connor had conked out a bit earlier. We decided to sleep without an alarm clock and once we woke up head out on the boat. We got up at 9am Sunday - packed a lunch AND dinner and off we went! Guess what? That meant I was knowingly going out and not coming back in for Hayden's nap! *gasp* Well, it worked out, she slept on the boat :). "See Lin, it is not so bad to let it go for something special" We met Jen Dave and Connor out at the sand bar and a couple other friends. We grilled our very yummy italian chicken right there on the boat and headed back around 7. Hayden was such a trooper and wasn't even whiny.... now tomorrow may be another story but she will get back on schedule and she will be fine! This weekend was so worth letting my hair down and taking in every bit of my wonderful family and my good friends! I love life!

Hello Summer time!! We are in the Carolinas and it is HOTT!!! We have already started enjoying it as much as we can stand it! We go to the pool at Nana and Paw Paw's and swim and Hayden loves it! She wears a life jacket type swimsuit and then has a mini innertube around her and she just jumps right in, kicks her little feet to the ladder, gets out and does it again and again! She is fearless! We like to walk at the park with another mommy and her little girl but it is getting so hot we may have to walk earlier. We were going at 11am and then 10am and now we may have to move it again, lol. We get our walk in and then we let the girls play and they love it too! Today Hayden was so sweaty that she was wet when we got back home. I had even tried walking to the park but there is no way I can do that now unless I went before the sun got up. ha! I have also gotten into a routine of going to the gym for Zumba class. It is a latin hip hop dance class and I love it. I wish I had a membership so I could go whenever and actually work out but this is keeping me active and burning calories. I'd say we like to stay pretty busy! I don't know any other way. I am still cleaning houses and that also keeps me going. Shay is now keeping Hayden in the afternoon while I work at the Insurance Company. I know she loves it. She quit work and is a house wife and watching her grandbaby. :) We all love it. It is very helpful for Justin and I too! We had to go to the beach a couple weeks ago for a wedding that Justin was in, Chad and Angela's, and it was a whole weekend -- We left Hayden here with Shay and we had a good time but I missed her so much! I got some time to lay out and get some sun and we did the wedding stuff then headed home. I drove and Justin got some sleep since he had to be at work that night and I got turned around so many times it wasn't even funny! I was ready to get home to Hayden!!

There is a lot to catch up on but I have not been sleeping well lately and I need to get some rest... it is almost 12am! ugh!

I've got a big girl in the making...

We made the transition to a toddler bed this past weekend! "Oh my!" is right! I had thought her crib was supposed to be a 4-in-1 and turn from a crib - daybed -toddler bed - then to a twin or full. BUT I could not get it and of course we no longer have the paperwork on it anymore SOO... we bought a toddler bed from a friend on YCM for $20!! Wohoo! After I sanded it, I had help from Danny painting it and then I put it together and took down the crib and changing table. I am really proud of myself for taking this on and doing it. Usually Justin and/or Danny feel like I throw projects on to them and I never mean to, they just take over ;)... (really, they enjoy it though. Don't let them fool you - haha) I guess I should not have taken it all down until I knew if it would work or not because the first night was rough. If the crib had still been up, she would have gone in it! Then again, I am glad I took it down b/c soon or later, she would have to transition! Anyhow, we are on day 2 and it is slowly getting better. The first night she thought it was the coolest thing to be able to run over to her bed and sit on it with her books and stuffed bear ... then came bedtime.... She would lay down but as soon as I would get ready to leave she would cry a scared cry. After sitting by her bed and then sitting by the door and making my way out of the room she went to sleep an hour and a half later. 5am I hear a loud noise and Hayden begins to cry -- yep, she fell out of the bed. Let me remind you that this DOES have side rails on it and one side is against the wall... she just sleeps all over the place! So in the bed with us she goes!! Sunday nap she falls asleep in the car so that went well. We just moved her to the bed and she slept a good 2 hour nap. Now that evening was better than the first, only took about an hour. I just layed there and explained that she needed to sleep in her big girl bed and mommy was going to sleep in her own bed and see her in the morning and she did good. Now at 1am she fell out again! I layed with her for a min and left the room again. Today, day 2, daddy put her down for her nap but when I got home with groceries I guess I was loud enough to wake her up so I hear her, go in there and she is sitting on the floor by the door. Not a great naptime but it will do... in her crib if she had heard me she would have layed back down and went to sleep but not now that she can get out of her bed herself. So here we go to a big girl in the making.

Day 5 Update:

It is getting a lot better. I knew it would just like training her to self soothe when she was a baby. However, I have had to start building a little wall with some stacked pillows so she can't fall out. Riht now the ratio is 4:5. That would be 4 nights, 5 falls. Monday night I walked in to check on her and build the wall and she had hers knees on the floor but her head was still trying to hang on the bed, like a praying postition. It was cute but poor thing!!! Naptimes have actually been a lot better than expected. I thought it would be hardest, that she would just rebel against sleeping and want to play but she is doing better at naptime then bedtime.

Lesson learned for myself here - Well, a lot of patience, as usual. But also I think that with the next one I will be sure that it is time to transistion over. Now I am not saying it wasn't time for her but I may have rushed it a little bit. She was able to climb in/out of her crib and she does looked cramped sleeping all over the place in there but now ... she can get in and out whenever she wants!! LOL! I know that after talking to so many other parents that everything is different for everyone/child. Some never had any problems and started at a year old with the toddler bed... some wait 3 years or longer.

Mother's Day 2010

Mother's Day becomes more and more special to me. Hearing Hayden say "I love you" is the most amazing feeling ever! I know the day she says it and knows what she is saying it will mean even more. She loves to tell people "I love you, muah, bye bye" It is sweet! I couldn't imagine life any different. It is also has changed the way I look at Mother's Day regarding my own mother. Oh how I can appreciate the role of being a mom now more than ever! I could never say enough wonderful things about my mom to make up for even half of who she is. What she has taught me and made me the mother I am to Hayden today. I thank God for giving me such a wonderful mom who cared, loved, and never gave up ;). There was never a day that went by that my mom did not help me (and her other daughters), love me, hug me, or pray for me. I hope one day Hayden will be able to feel the same about her mom as I do about mine.

We Love You Mom!!

This weekend my mom took Hayden for the day on Saturday while Justin and I went on the lake. We took the boat out and got some sun! We rode up to TBones on the Lake and had lunch on the pier, then got back on the water to lay out! How nice! I truly enjoy the time Justin and I get to have just one on one. Sunday, after Church, we went to Granny's house for a family cookout. Hotdogs and hamburgers are always good with good family time! I would do it every week if it were possible! The kids playing was so good to see.... Hayden, Ava, and Ali, and Justin and Josh running around! I think Hayden could be friends with anyone if they would just give her the time of day.... that means all their attention! :) She would go around saying "hug" and hug whomever. And cousin Lee and Larah were able to make it with the new baby Jude! He is so very precious! I got ot hold him and get my baby fix... I am all good to go now. :D

That brings me to this question: Does everyone eventually stop asking "when are you going to have another baby?" It doesn't seem like it cause I get it all the time. I really have no idea if we will have another baby or not. I don't know why I am having a hard time with this decision. There are so many good things about having a sibling for Hayden nut I am not sure if I can handle it all or not. I wonder that same thing about Justin too. Does that sound selfish? It really is a battle going on inside my head on this. I wish I could skip through and have 2 kids about 6 years old and 8. No I don't really wish that at all actually! I enjoy all the milestones watching Hayden grow and learn, I just know it will be tough in the first stages with 2 children. But there are many many women who have done so I know I could, I think. LOL No I know I could.

Speaking of, Hayden was in the bath tonight (looooves the bath) and picked up a foam letter "A" and said "A"... Isn't that great?! She is really smart, I swear she is, not just because she is mine. I think I was always afraid I would not know how to teach her things so I just "review" and do games and cards and stuff like that all the time. I sing the alphabet all the time and she will sing the tune with me but not yet the letters. She will say all the colors but it is just the words, not like the actual color with a match. But you know, some children do not yet talk as well at this age so I know she will do just fine! I hope and pray that she continues to learn as quickly as she does now so that she does not have study problems when she is older. Oh but how I do not want to get into thinking about school yet... that is a discussion in itself and it is so early. I cannot believe that in a few years I will be deciding what is best for schooling! I am considering all options - Private/Chirstian, homeschooling, public? Just don't know which is best. I need to get out there and ask some people who may have some input.

So to end a wonderful Mother's Day,

Happy Mother's Day to all of your wonderful moms out there!

Good Night!

Family Time

Lately we have been able to really spend some family time together. Justin was layed off at Bowater and we took advantage of that time. We went on the lake in the boat, all three of us. Hayden loved it. She just wanted to drive! We rode around for a couple hours on Lake Wylie and just enjoyed the fresh air.

We also packed up and headed to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. The drive took about an hour and a half but Hayden did surprisinly well. This was such a fun age to take her because she knew the animals and the sounds they made so she was very interested in seeing them alive and in action. We brought our own lunch and sat at the tables for a break then headed back for more. We did bring her backpack "leash" and found it useful. I would never walk around the store with her wearing one but somewhere like the zoo, I thought it was perfect. She felt independent and could squeeze through tight areas and yet I had her the whole time. She was so funny, she would mock the monkeys, saying "eh eh eh mon-key" She did this with a lot of the animals.

We got to feed the giraffes too! That was pretty neat. I think Hayden was a little scared but definately comforted being in daddy's arms. After one long, but wonderful day, Hayden was knocked out all the way home making it a good car ride home. I think I even napped a little ways while Justin drove. :)

And to clear things up, Justin does now have a job. He was hired on at Domtar 2 weeks after Bowater. Straight 3rd isn't exactly what I was thinking but it seems to be working out pretty well. We still get time together and it actually helps me out when I have to work over or have a house to clean in the morning or something but it is still 3rd shift and I know he doesn't get good sleep having to sleep during the day. I have to say I am proud of him!