Ive been a super blogging slacker sorry....

Alright alright alright, I have lots to talk about. One, Brian's mom Sandy just visited, she was supposed to come a while ago but her husband had some medical issues so her trip was postponed until early February, She had not met Hannah and well Hannah is....her own person I guess...she doesn't want to be put down, I have to hold her, but she doesn't want to be snuggled. Hold her but don't you dare love her! She's very aware of stranger danger and this includes people we see daily, they could be strangers too depending on Hannah's mood. Anyways we were worried Hannah wouldn't take to Sandy and that Sandy wouldn't be able to hold her, well thankfully Hannah loved Grandma and was more than pleased to let Grandma pack her around and let me just say my arm appreciated the week Sandy stayed with us! The Day before Sandy left to go back home to Virginia Hannah got her first tooth! HURRAY for good timing Hannah. While she was here we went to the Hands on Children's Museum where Heather, our girls and I have a membership (thanks Nana) Cindy took sandy after the museum to do some things and we wandered around the grounds of the capital which was all so pretty. Hayleigh kept asking what everything said and wanted me to explain what it all meant and then kept telling me she was the luckiest girl ever. Which I thought was pretty cute. We also Went to the park with Sandy which Hayleigh loved because the weather has been so yucky for so long, Brian and I took his mom out to see Avatar in Imax 3D which was really cool. Brian and Sandy had never seen a 3D movie and the only one I had seen was an underwater show at the science center so this was really much more entertaining (don't get me wrong the other one was cool too) Anyways, here are a few pictures of Sandy's Trip

From Left to Right- Cindy (Brians Sister) Jason (her Fiance) Sandy (Brians mom) Jordan (Cindys son) Brian, Hayleigh, Myself and Hannah

Grandma and her Grandbabies

Hannah doesnt fall asleep on people normally (even us) so this was pretty big

Brian Playing with the tube wall at the childrens museum which was cute

Hannah in the grocery scale at the museum

At the Park with my girls

Girls with Grandma at the park

Hannah licked the swing....I wasnt impressed, however I couldnt help but take pictures...then take her out of the icky swing

Playing at the Capital

Pearl Harbor Memorial

Hannah being cute

Our fave Monument

Hayleigh took this picture

So Like I said Hannah got her first tooth while Sandy was here, well she got her second tooth a few days later so she now has two little teeth. Hayleigh lost a tooth this week also, she swallowed it in her sleep. Shes a weenie and wont wiggle her teeth hardly at all so shes got about a 1/4 of a tooth already visable. Hannah isnt really interested in crawling yet, but if you put her on her tummy she will then in a fit of rage (she hates being on her tummy) push herself backwards so Im a mean Mommy and put her on her tummy so she can rage! Haha!

My Neice Olivia turned 2 while sandy was here and we had her "Oli Poli Personal Pizza Decorating Party" at my house. Heather calls her Oli Poli and has since she was pregnant and now Olivia calls herself "Poli" Heather made little personal pizza kits for everyone to decorate, adults included. She also made a cookie kit that was a sugar cookie and fondant shaped toppings to look like a pizza. It was pretty cute. All of the kids had alot of fun.

Im sure there is alot that Im forgetting but Nap time is over with.

Christmas

We had a great Christmas. I hope everyone else did as well. We go to my moms for dinner and open presents on christmas eve and then we come home get everything out for santa and have christmas morning just the 4 of us. Christmas day we go to Brians Aunt Pat's house and have christmas with his extended family and have dinner there. This year we also got together with Brians sister Cindy, her son and fiance and we opened up presents from my mother in law on the web cam since shes in VA. Sunday we had my extended family christmas party at my house. Needless to say my girls opened an obscene amount of presents and dont understand how spoiled they are. I didnt take pictures, I meant to but Hannah was fussy for part of the time and eating for the other of I swear most of these get togethers. We told Hayleigh that she could open Hannahs presents since Hannah wasnt able to and she was more than pleased to help with that which was cute because she would open them and explain to Hannah what it was, who it was from, what it did etc. Shes such a good big sister. I did think to take a picture of the girls in their christmas jammies but it didnt turn out so well. Anyways, this is the best Ive got. Sorry. Next year....

Its about that time again...

Laura's birthday in is Jan. and I always start thinking about her alot around this time of year. I think about her alot already, but with her birthday and christmas shes on my mind extra. Ontop of that Ive been watching this show on mtv called Teen mom and they are following a few young moms and two of them annoy the crap out of me, but there are two I like. One girl seems like a great mom and seems very dedicated which I like and then there is a couple who did an adoption and of course that tugs at my heart. Watching their story kind of made me reconnect with some of the feelings I had originally after she was born. She has an outstanding family, I just cannot say it enough. Shes got an older brother who watches over her and her parents are just those people that were ment to be parents and excell at it. Im very open with my adoption and feel very much at peace with it. I never know if I should contact them or not. I get letters yearly but I dont want to interfere with their lives though. I dont know what it feels like to be the parent of an adopted child and if their biological parent writing or contacting the family would make them feel uncomfortable. I havent spoken to them in years, like I said I get letters but thats one sided. I think they would be okay with it, they were always very accepting of me but still...anyways Im working on a letter for them to tell them about Hannah and kind of give them a little update on me too. I dont know but I think later she will want that. I really do hope that one day my girls and I have a relationship with her, even if its not much I hope for something later. This picture is one of my faves and I think this is exactly what I wanted for my little girl. A safe, happy life with a Mom and a Dad that love her and she got lucky and ended up with a great big brother too!

Laura and her dad Summer 2007

Christmas is Coming!

Its almost here and now that my shopping is all done I want it to be here. Yesterday would be nice! I bought Hayleigh and Hannah matching jammies to open christmas eve and Im anxious to see Hayleighs reaction to them. Shes a very involved big sister and will be very excited about this. She likes to share with Hannah as much as she can. Finding these jammies...well..easier things have been done. Since there is a 6 year age gap its not often you can find things that work for both ages but thanks to carters and fred meyers for fixing this issue for me. Ive been a slacker and still have some christmas cards to send out, thankfully most are in state and will likely get there before christmas.

                                                                             Hannah got into bows and Hayleigh felt the need to cover hannah in them...why not right?!

Hayleigh just got her first report card in school and she is doing so well. I am very proud of her. She got great grades and her teacher wrote all nice things about my little girl. I dont ask that shes the smartest child in the class room, I dont ask that shes anything but herself. I do however want that little girl to at least be grade level, have manners and be able to get along with the other children. Thankfully all of these things are found in my not so baby "baby" ( I can still pretend right?! )

Hannah has discovered her feet and enjoys eating her toes as often as she can.  She has also discovered her range of vocal cords and joyfully squeals very often. Shes a pretty cute little bugger if you ask me. She is very interested in the things Hayleigh is doing and gets very excited now when Brian and Hayleigh get home. I never understood Im sure like many other parents how its possible to love another baby like you do your first, I felt like I would be taking away from Hayleigh or depriving Hannah of something and favoring Hayleigh or something, and just like everyother parent Ive found that wow I can love two kids just the same. Its pretty awsome.

I should have blogged a while ago, we went to the tree farm and got our tree with my family and Heather and I took the girls to get pictures taken which were super cute, (no shocker there) Anyways, here are a handful of pics....

                                                  Merry Christmas From The Beverlys!

Teething infants, photo sessions, student of the week...alot going on!

So Miss Hayleigh was the student of the week at school and Im so proud of her, shes such an outstanding little girl, I know Im her mom and Im supposed to think that, but as a parent you dont have to be proud and you dont always raise children that are such great little people. Im not saying this is as a result of my parenting, sure Brian and I have something to do with this of course, but really bottom line is Hayleigh is a great little girl. Some kids are just naturally....perfect...what can I say like I said Im a proud Momma!








My little 3 1/2 month old Hannah is teething, poor thing. It seems way to young to start but I can feel a little tooth and everything, shes drooling, gnawing on everything has pink chubby cheeks. Is it sad that I think her agressive attack on any finger that nears her face is funny?! You would think it was dipped in formula the way she attacks any knuckle she sees. Oh! Shes also rolling over onto her side now, shes got it figured out and this morning was just inches away from actually being all the way on her tummy.







Thanksgiving is this week and Sandy will be here on the 1st for a visit (hurray for Grandma!) so Ive got alot to do around the house to get ready. Since we moved into this house we've done the family get togethers here, its a perfect trade off, I do the before and after clean up and my mom shows up and cooks, so Im happy Im getting to "host" but really my mom is its just in my house and she gets the perk after years of the before, during and after chaos she only now has to deal with the chaos during the event which Im sure is nice.







So, yesterday Heather and I took Olivia, Hayleigh and Hannah to sears in the Tacoma mall for pictures. Hannah and Olivia had short naps so we were working with a limited perky baby window...well....the camera literally stopped working 3 times once even for 45 minutes, finally we were moved into a new room because that camera was infact working but by this time we were near breakdown mode. We did get some great pictures, but it took 3 1/2 hours from start to finish. We had two bottles, several "smile treat" meltdowns, a bottle of water spilled entirely soaking Olivia while creating our photo package, Hayleigh found a peice the snowflakes that were hanging from the ceiling which did not appear to be a peice to her so it was a treasure that of course came home with us ( YAY! More broken toys in my house! Just what I wanted! Lucky me! If only I could find the hidden "gem" and throw it away...Im pretty sure its hidden for safe keeping or in a place that will cause me foot pain...its a 50/50 chance of either.) Finally we left Sears and took the girls to ride the stupid...I mean awsome coin opperated rides outside of the store to hopefully let them release some tension...boy were we wrong, it was all going well until we got into the car...I guess you could say the shit hit the fan. Hannah and Olivia were screaming as if they were dying, I ran into the store because we were all starved and werent going to get home and start cooking a meal at 6:30pm I made Hannah a bottle thinking oh lately shes been eating 6 oz bottles every now and then maybe the 4oz bottle in Sears wasnt enough I will make her another one and thats probably going to settle her down, so Heather stays in the car with the meltdown twins and Hayleigh since in the back seat next to Hannah feeds her. As I walk out the door of the store I see Hayleigh running in the door and Heather following crying Olivia and Hannah both only to find out that shortly after starting to eat her bottle Hannah threw up, who btw has only thrown up 4 or 5 times so kind of rare event. I think it was because she had been crying so hard. We Finally get home both girls still screaming walk in the door and Hayleigh falls onto the couch bawling out of no where. Shes worried about Hannah because shes never seen her throw up before (really she hasnt oddly shes either always been in the other room, sleeping or something) Brian was at home the whole time because he was one watching football and was two on call, hes mildly baffled as to what the hell we've done to these girls. Moral of the story....there isnt one...we got great photos and I think it will be quiet some time before we brave a photo studio again. They were very appologetic about the malfunction ( we think we should have gotten an extra discount because of the issues but whatever) and they really were trying to make it a good experiance. Of course Here are the Pictures...CAUTION....ALOT OF PICTURES! Really your not surprised, this is me were talking about and we all know how I feel about pictures!

Hannah, Olivia and Hayleigh

Hannah 31/2 months old

Hayleigh 6 years

Oh my little Loves!

Sleighbells anyone?!

Olivia 21 months

wheres Olivia?!

random just to give me a reason to blog, blog :)

So Hannah is 3 months old tomorrow. Crazy how time flies you know. Shes getting so big so fast. Shes starting to laugh which we love. Its almost becoming a mission to see who can make Hannah laugh between Brian, Hayleigh and I. When I get it on video I will upload it...well if I can figure it out. When I bought my camera it had a video camera feature and its a great camera i love it, it takes great video and pictures which is great that its all in one, BUT if you know how to do something with the videos once on the computer that tends to help. Brian knows how and I always forget to ask him to do something with the videos weve taken. partly so that I can share them, partlly because well I keep them on my camera and Id like to free up some space on my memory card. Its amazing how fast 4G fills up.

Brian has been home since Oct 30th on vacation which has been great, but Ive been lazy and laying around the house with him during the day. As much as Im going to miss him because Im getting used to having him around during the day it will be nice for everyone to get back in our normal routines. Were not doing anything exciting right now, Brians a movie buff. His Favorite thing is watching and collecting movies so weve been staying up later not super late, but later watching movies since he doesnt have to get up early for work.

Hayleigh is doing so well in school. I was honestly very worried about how she would take to the whole school thing. Whenever I would work with her at home she never retained anything I taught her which worried me she wouldnt be successful in school and I was wrong. Apparently moms dont know as much as teachers, which is fine. Shes learning and thats all I care about. She is always bummed when the weekend rolls around because she wants to be at school.

Overall things are good in the beverly household

tummy time

trying to sit up on her own like a big girl

she wanted to ride her scooter to the bus stop, so I figured why not.

Halloween

Halloween came and went. Hayleigh was a witch complete with green face (not my fave costume) Hannah was "Baby Bones" not like she actually participated in halloween. It wasnt super exciting. Brian had a vasectomy on the 30th so he wasnt up for trick or treating, hannah doesnt care and then last minute I wasnt feeling well. Hayleigh had fun though. My parents picked her up around lunch took her and Olivia to McDonalds to have lunch and play in the play area and then took them to the Tacoma Glass Museum where they had their faces painted, made some crafts and painted pumpkins. Hayleigh like always talked Nana and Papa into buying her stuff there (the girl can scam anyone out of anything I swear) they brought Hayleigh back and our friends Leigh and Quinn (along with Leighs friend Kateri) came over and got ready for trunk or treat at Hayleighs school. Quinn was a black cat. My mom, Heather, Olivia and Katie came over and we all went to trunk or treat. After that I wasnt feeling well and my mom Heather and Olivia went home and Katie stayed the night. Kateri took Katie, Quinn and Hayleigh trick or treating. I felt bad I wasnt out with hayleigh on Halloween, but there wasnt much I could do.  All that matters is that Hayleigh had fun and got plenty of candy which she did.