Happy Birthday Hayden!

Happy first birthday sweet baby boy!

One year ago today Drew and I headed into the hospital so that I could be induced. At 2:36 pm we welcomed little Hayden Lee into our lives.

A little about Hayden--

weights 26 lbs 6 oz

eats real food--he LOVES fruit...so much so that I won't give it to him till he's eatten everything else I want him to! :) I found if you give him fruit too soon he'll feed everything else to Mabel! What a little skunk!

walks almost every...but still crawls when it's faster for him

LOVES balls, trucks and being anywhere Bethany is

WHEN

did my first born turn into a little girl? Bethany found these skates we bought at a garage sale last summer in her toy box this morning and she had to put them on. After helping her "skate" from her room to the kitchen it really struck me how much she's grown and changed. My little rolly polly Bethanydoodlebug has grown into this long legged skinny little girl. When did this happen and where has the time gone?! **sniff, sniff**


And look who is walking before his first birthday! Crawling is still faster at times but Hayden is amazing us by walking more and more everyday.

SWEET NECTAR SENT FROM HEAVEN!!

Today while I was in the kitchen peeling garlic for Crockpot 20 to 40 Clove Garlic Chicken (found here at A Year of CrockPotting--check it out she has some really great recipes). Like I was saying I was in the kitchen and the kids were playing in the living room. I heard Bethany run back to their room for something and after awhile (it takes awhile to peel that much garlic!) I realized Hayden was pretty quiet (never a good sign). Just as I was thinking that I heard a really weird noise coming from the living room and when I walked around the corner to see what it was, this is what I found--

Yep, that's Hayden chugging a PRINCESS sippy cup. Nope, that's not the one I gave him. One guess who's going be be mad when she discovers that he has it?

**Yes, that means I still give Bethany a sippy cup. I know, I know she's 3. Yes, she can drink from a glass. But if she's going to be running around the house with her drink I put it in a sippy.**

Man, I've been spotted.

I really don't care this stuff is SO GOOD!!

**This is the first time Hayden has ever had straight juice...it's usually water or water with a little juice for flavor.**

At this point he couldn't figure out why I was laughing so hard...but I couldn't help it! He was really getting after it.

Do you really have to take so many pictures of this?

Who cares! Take all the pictures you want...as long as it means I can chug the rest of this!

Empty...grrr!

No, wait there may be more. I better check. Good to the last drop!

HA! HA! Look what I got back!

**Note the pictures have now moved from the living room to the kitchen. That's because someone wearing a lime green outfit DID throw a fit once she found her brother had HER cup. She cried till she took it from him then he screamed his head off and crawled after her till I gave it back to him and promised her a new clean cup.**

MORE PLEASE!!

MMMM, this stuff tastes good...not like that stuff you normally give me!

SWEET NECTAR SENT FROM HEAVEN!!

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What else do you expect us to do on ANOTHER rainy day?!

At least it's good for our baby grass! Can you see it?

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today Drew loaded us all up in the Yukon. We threw together a few items we might need in case the baby came early and packed the uhaul with things the moving company wouldn't take. And we left North Carolina for the long trip back home to Kansas. I was days away from being 36 weeks pregnant, Bethany was 2, Mabel was as wild as all get out and Drew was praying he wouldn't have to deliever a baby on the side of the road...which he tried to reassure me would be fine if he had to...he'd pulled calves before...lucky me marring a small town boy with a farm background. ;)

Here I am in all my glory one year ago. :)

Now one year later life is a little different. We live in Kansas.

Hayden is no longer the wild man in my belly, today he is just our little wild man. He's into EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE!

Today Bethany is "helping" Drew and Grammy (my mom) plant a garden.

Today Mabel loves to go out to the country and just be a dog.

And guess who feeding himself today?

Moving back to Kansas has been one of the best things we have ever done...we love being home and so close to our family and friends. But to all of you in Texas and North Carolina...we miss y'all! :)

**For those of you that saw that a tornado went through Tonganoxie today--it touched down about 5 miles from my parents. As for all our family we are all safe. God is good!**

HEY OUT THERE!!

I am sure some of you have wondered if I'd been sucked of the face of this planet...well I'm still around...just really busy with my two wonderful kiddos! ;)


Hayden is exactly one month away from his first birthday! (**I'm wiping away a tear right now...where in the world has this last year gone?! Just a year ago we were in NC and Drew was interviewing for jobs in KC and we weren't sure if we'd make it home in time to have this baby!) Check out his eye lashes! Just like Bethany and Drew...LOVE THEM!


Miss B in an outfit she put together...she LOVES to wear the lime green dance outfit...believe it or not it was once mine!!! LOL! I LOVE how she picks out all the little "extras" to make the outfit...because snow boots DO go with EVERYTHING! I love this age and how much fun she is.


Hayden at an Easter egg hunt we had for our MOPs group. He is crawling EVERYWHERE and pulling up on EVERYTHING...but isn't a fan of the grass yet. Even though he hasn't been in the saucer in forever I took it so he could watch all the kids running around. Someone was sweet enough to give him an egg to hold. And check out the fauxhawk!! No, I do not style his hair that way (I can't count the number of times I've been asked that) it grows like that all by itself due to his double swirly!! Bless his little heart the fauxhawk is so cute on a baby but will make him crazy as he gets older!




We spent Easter in Smith Center with Drew's parents. We had a great time but didn't get to take any Easter pictures outside due to the rain. We ran out of time to take them before church and Hayden fell asleep on our way home. So after his nap I redressed him and we tried to get a couple...as you can tell he wasn't a fan of this. Bless his little heart he really had a Chris Farley look going on with his little Easter suit. He's just a chunk! We couldn't get his shirt to stay tucked in and he looked like such a block in the jacket! And why is it so hard to get a 3 year old to smile like a normal person? These are the best out of all the ones we took!

I've been busy

I've been really busy...so my blog has been pushed to the back burner lately.

After we moved back home I signed up for a quilting class at church with my mom. I figured it was time to bite the bullet and learn to use the sewing machine she gave me for my birthday...before Bethany was born. Yes, that means I'd had it over three years and my mom was the only one to take it out of the box...to use at my house...to make things...for me. How bad is that?!

I made a baby quilt for my soon-to-be-brand-spankin'-new nephew Mason LaVon Overmiller. :) He is due in February and I wanted to give the quilt to Daren and Heather (Drew's brother and wife) before I posted it here. This quilt is my first completed sewing project since 8th grade Home Ec. and as you can guess I've got a pretty proud mama (she was my 8th grade Home Ec. teacher!)

This is the second quilt I started...Drew and I were so sure that Baby Mason was a girl that I actually started a girl quilt! But after the first quilt was started we found out Baby O. was a HE and not a SHE! So I had to start a new quilt for a boy. I'm going to go ahead and finish the first quilt...there is another baby coming in the family (NOT ME) and if I finish the girl quilt she may get it.

So here it is!

It's made all out of flannel and I LOVE it!! The navy fabric has little trains, planes and cars all over it. If I wouldn't have had Mason's name embroidered on it I might have tried to keep it. :) So I'm thinking about going back and getting more fabric to make one for Hayden.

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IN OTHER NEWS

It snowed here today! It's our first snow here in Kansas.

And look at this little butter ball! We've started calling him Hayden square head squishy pants. :)

A Bethany Funny

It's been FOREVER since I posted...and it's not for the lack of pictures or things going on here! :) I have so much to share but I just haven't had the time to get it up. I'm hoping to find time this week to "catch up"...but till then here's a little Bethany funny and some Hayden Highlights for y'all.

This morning Drew was rushing around getting ready for work and before he went to iron his shirt he laid out his shoes and socks. When he came back Bethany was laughing to herself and that's when he noticed his socks were missing. When he asked Bethany what happened to them...she laughed again and said--"Daddy, I hide and you seek!" We got a good laugh out of it...after she handed over the socks! :) What a little skunk she is!

HAYDEN HIGHLIGHTS

• started cereal and baby food in September (LOVES them)
• rolling from his back onto his tummy since the beginning of October...and then gets really mad because he can't roll back the other way
• since finding his voice, Hayden LOVES to talk...we think he gets that from Drew ;)
• at 5 months he weighted in at 18 lbs 12 oz!!
• sits by himself for a few seconds now--for a little fat toad he's really trying to work those ab muscles!