I can’t believe how tall Hailey is!!  She looks so grown up…

Hunter was not interested in standing to see how tall he was hahaha

Hay ride

Hay ride

After the pumpkin farm we went to the Olive Garden to celebrate my birthday with a yummy lunch.  Afterwards we came back to our house for cake and presents.

I couldn’t ask for a happier birthday

Our last day in Disney World   We slept in until 8am and then packed up most of our stuff.  Then we went and got some breakfast and ate it by the pool.  We all went swimming for a while:

I was getting nervous that we weren’t going to get everything packed up in time to go, so I went back to our room to finish packing while Hailey and Rich did some more swimming.

One last picture of the building we stayed in.

Once everything was all packed up I called and booked our bounce back offer (free dining).  We decided to stay at the French Quarter for our next visit.  It’s much smaller and we didn’t really like how huge Riverside is.  We stayed at French Quarter a few years ago and really liked it there.

Then we had some yummy lunch and I had a Magic Cookie with my lunch.  It was sooooo super delicious!!

There was a little time to play in the arcade before we had to go.

While we waited for the bus to come to take us back to the airport we looked for Hidden Mickey’s in our lobby and found several of them.  Can you find all of them?

My princess

Sad to be on Magical Express back to the airport.

When we got to the airport, Rich said we could just pick any security line to go through.  I told him I didn’t think so and we should ask someone first since we had never flown Southwest out of Orlando before.  He insisted he was right so we picked a line and waited in it.  Once we got all the way through the line we asked where to go for Southwest… and guess what- we were at the wrong end of the airport.  We had to go all the way to other end and wait in line to go through security again.  Do you know how much fun that is with a 5 year old and a very overtired baby?  Lots… We were able to go through the employee line and skip the longest part of the wait, so that was very helpful.  When we go to North Carolina we were just supposed to do a quick stop and then continue on our way without getting off the plane.  But, there were severe thunderstorms at our destination so we were delayed.  Ugh!  We finally arrived at our destination much later than we had planned.  Then all the buses that came to pick people up to take them to the parking lot were so full there was no room for any people on them, let alone us with all our luggage.  Finally Rich went and got on the bus and went and got our car while I waited with Hailey and Hunter.  It took well over an hour… not fun at midnight.  Then of course there was the 3 hour drive home, while Hunter screamed because he had not been in his car seat for 10 days and was not happy about being in it again, he did eventually fall asleep about an hour into the trip home.  So, the trip home was not a whole lot of fun…

We did have a wonderful trip to Disney this year!  It is certainly much harder to do with a baby but we still had a great time.  I really liked how we took it slower this year and didn’t stay until park closing every night.  It felt much more relaxing than usual.  We can’t wait to go back!!

Tigger with Hunter at 10 months old.  It was so hard to get a picture this month!

Hunter likes to play peek-a-boo using his bedroom door.

Hunter will use anything that he can to help himself stand.

I can’t believe he’s already 10 months old!

I think he’s close to walking!  He has started standing up and letting go, just standing there not holding on to anything.  He hasn’t tried to take any steps yet, but I know that’s coming soon enough.

Everything Hailey does, Hunter has to do too.  If Hailey screeches, Hunter screeches.  If Hailey makes a funny noise, Hunter makes a funny noise.  If Hailey plays the piano, Hunter plays the piano.  He sure does look up to her and wants to do everything she does.  When Hunter plays the piano he sings too- he’ll say “aaaaahhhhhh.”  He also does that when someone sings, he waits for the person to stop singing and then he sings back.

Hailey- 6 years old, Hunter 10 months old

New stuff from this month:

Hunter’s 4th tooth came in a day after he turned 9 months old.  He is now working on two more top teeth.

Hunter had a very busy month checking out our house since he is now a speedy crawler.  He started to crawl about a week before turning 9 months, so this last month he has been very busy finding anything and everything that he could possibly get into.  He is such a busy little boy!!  We have to keep the bathroom and bedroom doors closed to keep him out.  But now that he is standing up all the time he tries to reach the door knobs.  He also tries to reach the top of the gate at the stairs and he works hard seeing if he can get it open.

One of Hunter’s favorite games to play is- throw my toys down the stairs and see who will go get them for me   He also loves to be chased… he’ll crawl a little ways, then sit and look at me and giggle, then crawl again- waiting for me to chase him.  It’s just too cute.  He has just started to help clean up his toys- when I sing the “Clean Up” song, he will stop what he is doing and start putting his toys into his bins.  I love it!!  He doesn’t like it too much when I help- he’ll tip the bin and look for whatever I put in there so he can take it back out hahaha

Sleep has been a little bit better, but only because he sleeps with me and Rich.  For nap time I usually have to hold him while he sleeps (my facebook time) or lay down with him.  He immediately wakes up if I try to put him in his crib.  At night he’ll go into his crib for a little while, maybe an hour at most, then he comes and gets into bed with us.  It’s working for now and we’re all getting more sleep, so we just have to do what works.

Hunter is still not really doing table foods- for the most part he’ll chew and chew and then just keep the food in his mouth and not swallow it.  Eventually I have to take it out of his mouth.  There are some table foods he eats, but for the most part he’s still eating baby food.  He loves sweet potatoes and yogurt- I think those are his 2 favorites.

Hunter did not have a check-up this month so I don’t know his weight/height.  I think he weighs around 21 pounds.  I know he’s gotten longer but when I tried to measure him he was shorter than last month, so I don’t think I got a very good measurement hahaha.  He is now wearing 12 months or 12-18 month clothes.  He is still wearing size 4 diapers.

For Hailey’s 6th birthday she decided she wanted to have her party at our house and have the theme be the new Disney movie Brave.  I have to be honest and say I really tried to beg her to have party anywhere but home.  I’m just not good at hosting parties or coming up with ideas, it’s just not my thing.  Well she really wanted to have her party at home and I wanted her to have the party she wanted, so I finally agreed.

The dining room all ready for the party.  There were 10 kids coming to the party, plus Hailey.

The birthday girl’s chair

The railing all decorated- the little blue things that are hanging down are the “wisps” from the movie.

I saw this idea on Pinterest and really wanted it for a decoration.  I showed the idea to my mom and she thought she’d be able to do it.  So, my parents came over the night before the party and put this up.

I love it!!  We got lots of comments about this decoration!

The number 6 container was also a balloon holder.  I made some extra containers with M&Ms and gave them to the closest guessers.

The birthday girl posing by one of the games- since Merida (the princess in Brave) loves archery, we had to have an archery tournament.

Another game- Pin the tail on Angus (Merida’s horse).  My very talented mom also made this horse for the game.

Fruit on “arrows”

Marshmallow pops

Target cookies (also made by my mom).

The birthday cake

I don’t have a whole lot of pictures of the actual party to share because there are other children in the pictures and I’m just not comfortable posting them.

As the kids arrived, I greeted them at the door and then they went to the living room to listen to the story of Brave.  We have the book on CD, so my mom was doing that with the kids while everyone arrived.  When the story ended I had the kids go to the table for some lunch.   After they finished eating they went back to the living room.

We played Pin the tail on Angus.  The kids really seemed to enjoy it!

Next we played “Pass the Bear.”  Since bears are a big part of the story we passed a bear around the circle and whoever was holding the bear when the music stopped was out. When we finished that we played the archery game.

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday and eat some yummy cake.

After cake, Hailey opened up her gifts.

The kids made princess bracelets after the presents were done… there were a few boys there, so they made bracelets for their moms

There was about 10 minutes left until pick up time, so the kids went outside to run off some sugar while waiting for their parents.

Me and Hunter watching the kids play.

The party was definitely a success and Hailey had so much fun!  The rest of the kids seemed to have a good time too.  My parents were so helpful and it wouldn’t have turned out without all their help.  That party ended at 2… then Rich and I cleaned up the house (while my parents went home to rest up after being in a house full of 6 year olds hahahaha) to get ready for the family party that was to start at 5pm.  It was nice to do it all in one day, but also a little crazy!

Anthony and Hailey playing with her Toy Story Toys

The guys playing football

Hailey’s cupcake birthday cake

Birthday girl

Anthony and Hunter

Hailey opening more presents.

Both parties went great and it was so nice to see all the friends and family who love and care about Hailey.  Thank you to everyone who made her day extra special!