Hailey's Birthday Party

We just celebrated Hailey's 2nd birthday with family last weekend. We had so much fun loving on Hailey all weekend. She is really cute at this age and lots of fun to watch as she learns and grows more each and every day. Minnie Mouse is her favorite right now so her party theme was pretty easy. :)

I think the kids' birthday are the only time out of the year that I get to pull out my art supplies and make something fun. I really enjoy it! I especially love picking out some of their pictures from the year to decorate with. It is so amazing to see how much they grow up in a year. About 1/3 of Hailey's pictures this year came from our time in Africa. We created so many memories in our five months there! Would you believe me if I told you that not a single day has passed since we have returned that I have not thought of or spoken of our experiences and the people there??? I am still trying to process it all. I am thankful to have so many pictures (and this blog!) to show our kids from our first trip as a family abroad. :)

 Miss Hailey June

It was fun to have both of our families together to celebrate. They don't get to see each other very often because the distance between them is over eight hours. So, these are always special times for me and Marc.

Hailey had all of her cousins to help her celebrate... even the littlest one who mostly just sucked her fingers and smiled during the gift opening. :)

Our sweet friend Gracie sent a gift all the way from Wichita. I think Hailey was more excited to hear me say Gracie's name than to actually unwrap the present and see what was inside. She kept squealing, "Oh, Gracie!" Thanks Gracie (and Dean and Dianna) for the gifts for Hailey and Eli. We miss you all.

 Love this smile. :)

 It took several blows but she eventually blew her candle out. Notice that big brother Eli was trying to help from the sidelines. Ha!

We had a great weekend celebrating. We have the best families! Thanks for coming.

The Arkansas Girls' Visit

We were so excited my mom, sister, and niece decided to pay us a visit all the way from Arkansas in honor of Hailey's birthday. It is not easy to travel a long distance with a little baby, but Bailey enjoyed her first time flying and the weekend was so much more fun with all of them here! I know my dad was really sad to miss out but he and my brother-in-law already had a hunting trip planned. We will catch up with them in a few weeks!

It is probably safe to say that Eli and Hailey currently have an obsession with babies. Bailey was clearly the most sought after person all weekend. :)

Bailey turned four months old during her stay with us. She is SO cute and I adore her rolls and giggles! It is such a big job to solely breastfeed when you are a full-time working mom, but clearly Stacey is doing something right. :) Hailey wanted to hold her anytime we would let her.

Nana with her granddaughters

 Lots of girls!

Hailey and Eli were so excited when I started pulling out our baby items for Bailey to use. Everything was very new and exciting to them!

Bailey seemed to enjoy our toys as well (I think we have another future thumb sucker in the family!)

I asked Stacey to take some Fall pictures for us while they were here and I think we got some good ones. It is so hard to get two little kids to look at the camera at the same time and smile! I can't imagine how hard it will be next year when we add another to the bunch. :)

A Quick Trip

Last week we drove the kids up to Gurnee, IL for a night away because Marc had a full ten days off from work. We had some loose plans a few months ago to head to San Diego during this week with Marc so he could participate in a medical conference. Then, we realized it would be better to stay home and tuck that money away for this new baby that it coming. We instead decided to get away for a night and head up to Key Lime Cove water resort. We took the kids last year to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City on our way to Illinois for Christmas. We had so much fun. We were hoping this year would be even better since the kids are older and able to do more on their own.

We had a blast! Eli was able to do all the big kid slides but two and had so much fun. He is fearless when it comes to stuff like this so we kept a close eye on him. :) 

Hailey enjoyed hanging out in the lazy river with me and going down the baby slides. The best part for me was having Hailey potty trained so we didn't have to mess with a swim diaper! AWESOME. :)

I really liked the inside theme of this resort better than the Great Wolf Lodge. It was decorated like a little beach town and was so cute on the inside. We brought most of our food so we didn't try the restaurants out, but they had a cute pizza and hot dog shop that looked to be kid favorites.

There are four enclosed slides that you can't see in this picture below that loop on the outside of the building. Eli was able to ride two of those slides with Marc and had SO much fun!

 Enjoying the lazy river and wave pool

Eli decided to plant himself in front of Hailey's favorite slide and not move. This did not go over well as you can tell. :) They are certainly siblings.

I think this is a great place to visit with kids in the winter. Check it out if you are in the Chicago area!

Happy 2nd Birthday Hailey!

Our Hailey June turned two! I can't believe how quickly this past year has flown by. She is SO much fun at this age. She is full of personality and loves to laugh and play. She brings us so much joy! Here are a few favorite pics from the past year.

Do I Live in a Zoo?

Our kids both LOVE reading the book "Love you Forever." It is funny to see as each year passes how more and more of the book becomes something I can relate to.:) Thankfully, my kids haven't flushed anything of value down the toilet...yet (but there is always room for #3 to improve on where the other ones left off!). I laugh when it talks about the mom feeling like she is in a zoo. Some days between these wild and energetic kiddos and all the clutter, that just seems like an appropriate description for our house. :) I guess it is nice to be able to laugh about it though. It is all the more enjoyable that way.

Anyhow, we like to visit real zoos more than we prefer to live in one so we usually get a zoo membership wherever we move to. The Peoria Zoo doesn't have all the great animals we had in Wichita, but we really enjoy it as a place to get out for a walk. I took Eli and Hailey by myself a few weeks ago on a day I could tell the kids just needed to get out of the house and run off some energy. I packed a quick picnic lunch for us as well to make it a full morning out.

The park had begun decorating for its upcoming Halloween night and the kids were way more entertained by all the blow-up characters than the real life animals. There were even four new baby tigers that I could have watched all day, but the kids were completely uninterested. So we opted for a photo with Mickey instead.

And this was the only other picture I took all morning. I am beginning to notice a trend that when I am with the kids by myself, there are very few photos taken. I think I just need an extra arm or two to make it all happen. :)

We all had a good time!

The next day Marc thought we should go check out the Wildlife Prairie State Park that some people had mentioned to us. We were told they had a train ride that went through the park. We knew Eli would really love that so we packed another picnic lunch and loaded up the kids (I'm so thankful our kids like peanut butter. It is such an easy thing to pack for a picnic. I wouldn't ever eat a PB sandwich as a kid. It took me being a camp counselor in college to finally get over it!)

This was another great trip we all enjoyed! I think we will be back.