Christmas with the Williamsons

Just call me a slacker as I am a little behind in posting these pictures from our Christmas with the Williamsons. We were able to take Hailey to Anderson and be with her other family members and spend time with Greg, Rhonda, Lauren, Tyler and Connor. We had such a wonderful time as we were able to just sit around, open presents, share memories and allow Hailey some time with everyone. She loved sitting at the table and eating Aunt Rhonda's corn casserole, potatoes, and green beans....she told me Aunt Rhonda's cooking was better than mommies! It was such a wonderful day to see the kids play with Hailey and the way they are going to be such a wonderful sister and brother to her. We have such a special bond with the Williamsons' and we are so blessed that we can keep up with each other and are so thankful they are in our lives. We truly had a blessed day and we love them so much! We hope you enjoy the pictures, and are all doing well.

Love,
The Andersons

Fire Up For Christmas!

We wanted to post some pictures of Hailey's first Fire Up for Christmas....this is a tradition that has been started on John's side of the family and one that we have an opportunity to share with his grandparents each year. What we do is his grandparents and parents hunt for small gifts that get us all fired up for the Christmas season. I have to say that Hailey loved all the gifts that were given to her, even though she is just now playing with everything that was given to her. She was so fascinated with the wrapping paper, tissue paper and also the bows...oh she loves the bows. It was so neat to watch her play with everything and enjoy such a wonderful tradition.

Hailey's First IU Game!

Hailey is truly an IU fan now, she has not only been to a football game, but she has now made it to her first of many IU basketball games. I have to say she did much better outside the womb at the game, than she did when she was in the womb. We had a wonderful night of watching the Hoosiers play and she did such a wonderful job at the game. She loved watching the cheerleaders run around the court with the IU flags, but she still does not like clapping. We are so blessed that she is such a great baby and very flexible when it comes to traveling and doing fun things that her parents enjoy. This has truly been the year of firsts for her and we are so thankful we can take her with us when we go places. What a blessing from God!

Visiting the Holsopples

Well, we had a wonderful visit with Eric, Liz and Chloe Holsopple. For those of you who do not know, these are our good friends that we meet while John was in PT school. We had just a wonderful time in Plymouth Indiana and girls had a great time playing. Even though Chloe didn't always enjoy the fact that she had to share her toys with Hailey, they both got along really well. We truly had a wonderful time getting to talk, I mean whatever conversation you can have when there are two little kids around, and we loved getting to see them again. Liz and I had a great time shopping while the guys were playing play station. Hailey had some long days of playing and one night she was so tired that she feel asleep in Chloe's highchair eating dinner. She was exhausted! Well, all in all we had a wonderful time and are so thankful to have such wonderful friends that we get to spend time with. We love them so much and were grateful for their wonderful hospitality.

6 Months Old!

Hailey is now six months old and she is growing so much. We took her for her check up and she is weighting 14 lbs 2 ounces, which puts her in the 10th percentile for her age. She is 26 1/4th inches long though and that puts her in the 70-80th percentile for her age....so as you can see she is still going to be pretty long and hopefully slender! Everything looks great and she is really doing well. She loves to sit up by herself now, but does still fall down sometimes when she is reaching for things. She also loves to try to feed herself, but doesn't get to do that very much because mom doesn't enjoy cleaning up the mess. She is such a great baby and we love her so much! What a blessing from God!

Hailey on the Harley

We wanted to post this picture of my brother and Hailey sitting on the Harley. She did not go for a ride, but we thought the picture was cute!

California Trip

This was Hailey and Olivia's Halloween costumes/outfits...we wanted to get them matching outfits, but also something that was very practical and could be worn again. So we got them the outfits and there was also matching bibs that had a little pumpkin on it and said Trick or Treat. They were so cute in them and they had a wonderful time going into the Stanford dorms and getting some candy. We had a wonderful time with them and they both enjoyed trick or treating together.

The girls also enjoyed the opportunity to eat and make a mess together. This a picture of them making a mess together and loving every minute of it...we all got such a great kick out of them eating each others food and sharing so nicely!

After a long hard day of playing together and being out in the beautiful weather, we would find the girls a sleep in their car seats and knocked out. They were so cute when they both would fall asleep, which usually didn't happen a lot, because when one was up the other one would normally be a sleep. So Denise and I loved the time we could talk and enjoy some quietness while the girls took a nap.

We also had a wonderful time taking the girls to the beach and letting them play in the sand. Thankfully Hailey did not want to eat the sand like Olivia did, but they both loved playing in the sand with their feet. Olivia starting eating the sand right after Denise made a comment that she didn't mind her getting sand all over her as long as she didn't eat....well sure enough Olivia loved the sand! It was such a wonderful day to take the girls out and let them enjoy the weather and the beautiful nature of the beach...we had a wonderful day of laughs and watching the girls experience something new.

All in all, Hailey and I had a wonderful time with Cousin Olivia and Aunt Denise. We also survived our first earthquake, a 5.7, and it was just another part of making our trip great.

Big Girl

We wanted to post some more recent pictures of Hailey trying to stand up all by herself and of her sleeping with her daddy. Each day she reminds us of how big she is getting as she tries something new....right now she is sitting up for short periods by herself. But she has not figured out that when she moves side to side she will fall over. It is so comical though to watch her as she tries to learn each new thing. She is talking non-stop now and still loves taking her 30 minute baths where she is kicking and playing the whole time. She is still trying to get her brother, Z, to let her play with him, but he is way to scared of her. She will get him though once she can walk. Well, Hailey and I will be leaving Monday to go to California to visit my cousin and her daughter Olivia. So please pray we have safe travel and a great time. We will be sure to post later about our trip.

New Pictures!

We couldn't help but post this new picture of Hailey and Z playing in her bedroom. It was so cute because Z actually came into her room and laid by her. I couldn't believe it, he is starting to show us that he really does love his sister.


Here is a picture of Hailey holding her bottle all by herself, it was so cute because I didn't have to do it for her. She just naturally grabbed it and held it all by herself. She is getting so big!

The last picture is of Hailey eating her foot while she is in the bath tube, she really loves to eat those toes and it makes me laugh so much. She is always trying to put them in her mouth and she is getting pretty good at it.

Oh, just a note, I am sorry that these pictures never seem to be with the right caption, I can't seem to get it to work out that way. Please forgive me!

Love,
The Andersons

A Busy Month

We apologize for just now updating our blog and keeping you informed on how Hailey is doing, but we have been extremely busy lately. Hailey has had many first this last month and so we are going to try and highlight some of them. The first one was when she was able to go to the Indianapolis Zoo with her cousins Danny and Mia. It was such a wonderful day and not hot at all, so that made for a great afternoon of looking at all the animals. She had a wonderful time, but only made it through the dolphin show before she feel asleep. What can we say, she loves the outdoors and loves being pushed in her stroller. We are sure though that she had a wonderful time and will want to go back when she gets a little older.

Hailey also had a wonderful time getting to play with Danny and Mia while they were here from Iowa, Danny even called and asked for us to bring Hailey back to Mimi's house because he was missing her....it was so cute!

Hailey also got to go to her first IU football game with Greg, Tyler, and Grandpa Danielson. She loved being the in suite and being able to play with her toys and watch the game. She had such a wonderful time getting to see some family members that she doesn't get to see very often. She feel asleep during the game, but it was only after she knew that IU had secured the win! She even wore her IU outfit, which we have now called it the teams "good luck charm." So she has to wear that outfit every time they play so they can make it to a bowl game...go Hoosiers!

Hailey is also enjoying the times she gets to cook with daddy, as you can see, she loves snuggling with daddy when he cooks. She is already taking notes and watching how her dinner is being made and she tries to help, even though it is not always helpful. But loves to be carried around!

Developmentally, she is doing great, she is now rolling over all the time and will roll from front to back and then from back to front. She loves to scoot on her bottom and will move all around her play area, so we really have to keep an eye on her now. She is still eating her toes and is now to the point of trying to get both feet into her mouth at one time....she has yet to accomplish this task, but she tries very hard. She is still enjoying her cereal, and will hold the bottle all by herself now, well until we get to the very end of the bottle and then she needs a little help.She is back to talking all the time now and I love the fact that she is doing that more now. She just loves to stare at you, no matter what you are doing because she doesn't want to miss out on anything. All in all, she is doing wonderful and we can't believe how much she is growing. She is doing wonderful and we are so thankful we can call her our daughter. The Lord continues to bless us and causes us to deepen our relationship with the Lord so we can teach our daughter about Him one day.

Well, sorry for this posting being so long, but I wanted to update you on how she is doing. I hope you are doing well and we will do better with the future posting.

Love,
The Andersons

4 Month Check-Up

Hailey is now over four months old and we wanted to give you an update on her check up. She is now weighting in at 12 pound 6.5 ounces, this puts her in the 40% percentile for her weight. She is 24 3/4th inches in length, this however puts her in the 75% percentile for her length. So as you can see she has grown roughly about two inches and put on 3 pounds. She is doing so great. We also think she is going to keep her blue eyes! I think she looks a lot like John now, but she is always changing with each day.She is now eating cereal once a day and loves it. Even though it takes us a while to feed it to her because she is always trying to help me feed it to her....so it can usually get really messy. But she is so funny when she is eating and it really makes our day to be able to watch her smile and giggle.

Hailey also went to her first wedding and had a great time. She wore her first ruffly dress and her first pair of black paten shoes! Needless to say she looked adorable...but we are bias!

Well, we hope you enjoy the newest update, please let us know how you are doing and stay in touch.

Love,
The Andersons

Almost Four Months Old!

Hailey is now almost four months old and is growing so quickly. She loves sitting in her bumbo seat and is always wanting to sit up now. She does not like to lay down unless she is sleeping or playing on her play mate. She never wants to miss out on anything, so she is always watching and following everything we do.

She is sleeping through the night and we are still working on her getting in more of a routine during the day. She loves to play really hard for about an hour and then she will be very tired and take a nap. The problem is she is not always getting up at the same time and so we have a hard time making her take a nap if she isn't tired. But we are working on and it will get better.

I am proud to tell you that last Sunday she found her feet and now loves to do nothing but try to grab them. It took her a while to figure out how she could grab them without falling over, but she has figured it out and loves it. She also loves to have water poured on them when she is taking her bath and loves to have her feet kissed. There are times when she will just lift her legs straight up and stare at her feet....she is so funny!

Hailey also loves talking into her mirror and it makes her roll onto her side. Just today she would grab the little elephant on her play mate and then roll onto her side and kick it. It was so cute to see her do it and to watch her develop more and more with each day.

She truly makes each day a wonderful day, even when she throws fits, she is still such a joy to John and I. We are so thankful to be blessed with such a wonderful daughter and we love every moment together. This blog does not do full justice for how much she is growing and all the new things she is doing. But we try to keep everyone updated. We hope that you all find joy in reading her newest posting and please remember to always pray that she will one day see how much the Lord loves her and how He has made her in His image.

Love,
The Andersons

Vacation Pictures

Well, seeing how some of our pictures were cut off, I decided to just post some more of our pictures from our trip. So I hope you all enjoy them, and can't wait to hear from you!

Great Grandpa Danielson's Picture

I wanted to publish this picture again since it was cut off from the newest posting. We were unable to figure out how to fix it, so it was easier to just publish the single picture.

Hailey's first vacation

What a trip....Hailey did so well for our first vacation together and I will highlight some of her favorite activities. First of all, she did so well on the plane and slept pretty much through the whole flight. The only time she was fussy was when we were descending. She slept on our shoulder pretty much the whole time, so that was such a huge relief seeing how her mommy stressed out over how she was going to do. She loved laying in her stroller when we would get off the flight and she was able to put her feet up and just kicking and play the whole time. She really enjoyed being able to stretch and not be held for a short while.

Hailey's favorite activity when we were at the house was swimming....even though she would fall asleep just about every time we put her in the pool, it was one of her favorite things to do. We were able to find her a sun boat that would shade her from the sun and even though she was too little to put her feet in the holes and sit up, she was able to lay down in the raft and kick her feet up. It worked out great to find this raft and she would lay in the raft and just relax some. She was so cute! She would just smile and laugh, but it was always followed by some good sleep out in the boat.

Hailey also got an opportunity to meet many of her relatives from Boston and was able to hang out with her relatives from Kokomo as well. She also loved having a morning with her Great Grandpa Danielson. They were able to spend a long time talking to each other and just laughing. Great Grandpa loved his morning with Hailey. She also got to spend a lot of time showing off for all her relatives and showing them just how cute she was.

Every night that we would go out to dinner, she would get dressed up and then fall asleep. She usually would sleep through the whole dinner, so that was a nice blessing to not have her fussy during dinner. But her sleep through the dinner usually meant a night with little sleep.

All in all, we were able to have a wonderful time on vacation and we couldn't have asked for Hailey to be any better. We are glad to be home since it was so hot there and get back to our schedule. We will continue to keep you all updated on Hailey's progress as she is growing so much. It is so hard to believe that she is 3 months now, how time flys. Thank you so much for those who have been praying for our safety, it was truly a wonderful vacation.

Love,
The Andersons

Dr. John D. Anderson!

 

I just wanted to write and let everyone know that John is officially a licensed physical therapist! After a lot of hard work and dedication to learning all that he needed to learn, he is officially licensed. He is extremely happy and just grateful for it all to be over and to not have to worry about the stress of taking the test anymore. We want to thank you all for your prayers and support through this time. Another answer to prayer! I am so proud of my husband and all that he has went through to complete this degree. So now you all must call him "doctor Anderson", and no more free physical therapy exams or advice...just joking! He deserves it! We love him so much and are so proud of him.