After a fun evening on Christmas Eve spent celebrating at my Aunt Winnie’s house we came home and Hailey went right to bed.  She was too tired to try to stay awake waiting for Santa.

Soon after Hailey went to sleep Santa stopped by to deliver some gifts.

Hailey actually slept in a bit on Christmas morning until about 7am.  Then she came in to tell me and Rich that is was morning.

She walked out to the living room and saw that Santa had brought her some presents.

Opening up her Strawberry Shortcake Berry Cafe.

I know this picture turned out blurry- but Hailey is showing off the gift that she made at preschool for me and Rich for Christmas.  She was so proud of it and I was excited because it’s the first homemade Christmas present I have from her that I didn’t help her make.

Hailey opening up her Achoo Baby- she asked for this doll every time someone asked her what she wanted for Christmas.

Brooke opening up some new clothes.

And of course Dottie got some presents too.

After we opened our presents from Santa we went over to Rich’s parents’ house for more gift giving.  I didn’t take any pictures while we were there.  Later my parents, brothers and sister-in-law came over to our house for dinner and more presents.  I’ll post those pictures in another post.

I realize that this post is about a week late but I just can’t seem to find the time to keep my blog updated anymore.  So- here are some pictures from Thanksgiving weekend.

We had a great Thanksgiving at my Mom and Dad’s house.  One of my brothers, Mike was there as well as my Aunt Winnie.  My Mom told me a few weeks before Thanksgiving that it was my turn to have Thanksgiving at our house, so I was very thankful when she said she would have it at her house!

Rich working on the gravy (he makes the best gravy and is always in charge of making the gravy) and my dad working on carving the yummy turkey.

My mom always makes delicious warm cider that we drink from cute little cups.  Hailey enjoys her little cup (with milk instead of cider).

After a fantastic dinner everyone did some relaxing.  Hailey and Aunt Winnie watched a Veggie Tales movie together.

We spent Friday and Saturday doing lots of shopping and I got a good amount of my shopping done.  It was a successful shopping weekend!

Hailey had been begging for weeks to wear her dress from Christmas 2008.  So I finally let her wear it to church on Sunday.

After church we decorated our Christmas tree.

Hailey and Brooke decorating.

Brooke and Hailey setting up the nativity.

I took a bunch of pictures of Hailey next to the finished Christmas tree, but she wasn’t being very cooperative and this is the best of the bunch!

A couple of weeks ago my cousin Beka, her husband Bill and their daughter Anika came for a visit.  Hailey was so excited that Anika was coming that she could hardly wait for her to get here!  I think they came for the 4 hottest days we have had all summer.  It was hot but we had fun anyways!

Here are some pictures of the fun we had together:

We started out at the zoo.  Brooke and Hailey enjoyed petting a goat.

The goats were a little bit pushy about getting their food so Hailey wasn’t able to feed them because they kept trying to jump on her.  The goats loved Rich!

Anika and Hailey heading off together.

Rich, Hailey and Brooke pose for a picture.

Rich, Hailey, Bill and Anika on the slides.

Anika and Hailey also spent some time swimming in my parents’ pool.  Afterwards they had a snack and drew with chalk on the patio.

Another day they played in the sprinkler over at our house.  It took them a few minutes to decide whether or not they liked the sprinkler.  As you can see Hailey decided she loved it.

Anika and Hailey playing in the sprinkler.

My dad had to go out and buy the girls a little wading pool to play in- and they loved it!

We had lots of fun together.  When Beka and I were younger we spent lots of time together and I have lots of fun memories from our times together.  I hope that Hailey and Anika will be able to make lots of happy memories together too!

Back in the beginning of May we took Hailey to her first circus.  I didn’t get any really great pictures of the circus so I never posted any pictures.  But since this was the first time she went to the circus I decided that I needed to post pictures anyways.  My pictures of the actual circus did not come out at all, but here are a few pictures of some of my favorite people.

Hailey watching the circus- she loved the clowns and the tigers.

Rich and Brooke- obviously Brooke was thrilled about having her picture taken.

Hailey loved her light up butterfly toy!

See my pictures aren’t very good- but I had to document Hailey’s first time at the circus.