Family Pictures and long over due update!

Okay so I am sure a lot of you out there are wondering why it has been so long since the last time we blogged.....well no good reason really, just a lot of other things that have occupied our time. Like being pregnant with twins, having a two year old running around and demanding my attention non-stop, organizing and preparing the house for the arrival of the twins, managing our Married for Keeps class at church and so forth. But I am happy to say that I am now updating and hope you enjoy it!



We wanted to share some of our pictures we had taken by Jill Cooper Photography, she is a friend who I met my freshman year at AU and we it was so much fun to reconnect with her and allow her to capture some moments with our growing family. She did a wonderful job getting so many of the moments and we are so thankful she was willing to do it. Thanks Jill!

Things are going well, Hailey is officially pacifier free and has been for a while now. John's aunt told us about cutting a small piece of the pacifier each week until she eventually has nothing left and gets rid of it. Well, after the first cut and some laughter from her mother, she threw it away or would hide it having no interest at all in it! So praise the Lord that it was a smooth and quick transition for her. We also are officially out of diapers and in big girl pants, this has also been very smooth for us and even though we did have some accidents she has done so well and is so proud of herself every time she goes. So we are so thankful that we have been blessed by such a bright little girl and God grace to get us through these big stages in her life (even though there are plenty more bigger hurdles ahead of us!). Hailey is talking non stop now and just a joy to be with, I love how she changes and grows so much every day. She is really becoming very athletic but also loves her baby dolls and she does a great job taking care of them which is so neat to see.






Well, this has been a long enough post for now, and I can't promise the next time I will post again...but I will work a little harder on it! Hope all is well and that the Lord is blessing each of you.

Love,
The Andersons<><



PS: Sorry for the lack of organization with the pics. We were struggling with the blogspot... maybe lack of practice

4th of July Fun in Kentucky!

Here are just a few pictures from our fourth of July in Owensboro, Kentucky. We were able to go there with my parents to see my Aunt and Uncle. Here are some pictures of some of the fun activities Hailey was able to do even though we had rain every day that we were there. Some of the pictures with the turtle was a toy that my aunt bought her so she could play with in the pool, but we never got a chance to swim. We also put her life jacket on to make sure it would fit for our boat ride and she had a lot of fun wearing that around the house, while she was brushing her teeth, with a visor from my parents playing in the bath tub. It was so much fun to watch her play and enjoy some of the new things that she has never know before or had a chance to do. She also was able to go on a boat ride and play in the mud and fish with my dad (those pictures will come at a later day). She also is really into getting horsey rides from her daddy and thinks they are so much fun. Any time you are laying on the floor, she will climb on you and want a ride....she is so silly. We hope you enjoy the new blog....hope this finds you all doing well!

Playing at Grady's House

We recently had a chance to go to Grady's house and visit his new little sister Breelynn. Hailey and Grady had a great time playing outside on their swing set, even though sharing was a hard time for both of them! Hailey really had a great time playing with some new toys and she was so nice to Breelynn, here are some pictures of their play date and holding the new baby!

TWINS!

Sorry that we do not have any cute pictures to post on here, but we wanted to post and let everyone know that we are expecting twins. We just got done with the doctor visit today and found out that we are not expecting one baby, but two. We are so shocked and still in a denial phase, but we know that we have to trust God to help with all our decisions and preparing for two babies. The twins look good, they are in two separate sacs and so that is nice because they won't fight over food and their growth will be better. We go in two weeks for another ultrasound and so we are excited. Please pray that I will stay healthy and that the pregnancy will go smoothly!

Hailey's 2 Year Old Birthday Party!

Sorry for the delay in posting the pictures from Hailey's birthday party, but we have been super busy with softball season and all the other things we are doing....so please forgive me. As you can tell from the pictures we had a great time with all of Hailey's friends. It was such a blessing to be able to have her party at my mom's church that has a huge indoor play facility. It was also all inclosed so that was nice to keep the kids contained! From the very start all the kids were in there playing none stop until it was time to go. We did take time eat some cake and other goodies. We also had a cake for her friend William who has the same birthday as Hailey, so it was nice to have them there with us and celebrating both of the kids birthday. From the pictures you can tell that she has a lot of boy friends who are her age, so we really need to find some other friends who have girls! Some of the little kids that were there include Ian (he is the one that she is walking out holding hands with), Owen (friend from church he is wearing the red shirt), Grady (he is in green and white shirt, I know them from high school/college), and then William (green shirt with a truck on it, I meet them through church as well). So all in all we had a wonderful time together with our friends and really had a great time letting the kids play together. Little Ian didn't want to go and when his mother tried to explain to him that he needed to go home and go to bed, he proceeded to tell her that he was not tired. He then woke up the next day and asked to go back to Hailey's birthday party....it was so cute!

Mother's Day!

I just thought that I would share my Mother's Day with everyone and sorry for no pictures! Well, Hailey doesn't quite know what this day is all about yet as she gave me such a wonderful present of being up all night. She is really going through a phase of screaming at night, but when you go to check on her she is still asleep. So we did this a lot throughout the night until finally about the fourth or fifth time I just fell asleep in her bed. When I woke up for the morning, John had surprised me with beautiful flowers (white baby roses and red tulips- beautiful) and he had done a collage of pictures of Hailey and I that had "Happy Mothers Day" on it. It was so sweet and really put me in the right mood after being up all night with Hailey.

After church we had a wonderful HUGE lunch that John, his dad and my dad prepared for all the others, we didn't have to help cook or clean up this time and it was wonderful! We had a great time being with our parents and just opening gifts.

I have to share that I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family, there is never a time that we don't feel loved or appreciated. They are always there for us, celebrating with us our highs and lows in life. They are constantly in prayer for us and we are so thankful to have such Godly parents and mothers in our life.

I also am so thankful for my husband, he is such an amazing father, husband and friend. His love for me so amazing and he is always there with me through everything we face in life. He has grown into such a Godly husband and father and I am so proud of all he does. He means the world to me and I love him so much. There is no one else I would rather spend my life with! I love you!

We hope that each of you had a wonderful Mother's Day and that it was special for you. May God continue to bless you richly!

Love,
The Andersons<><

Easter Fun!

Here are pictures of Hailey doing an easter egg hunt in Connersville with my family. As you can tell she was having a great time and loved dumping out the eggs each time she would find them all....of course she had some help from everyone, but at least no one was trampling her in persuit of finding every egg. I was honestly suprised that she kept wanting us to hide them as she is usually easy distracted. It was so fun to see my parents help her find all the eggs and take her all over the yard trying to pick them all up. Then after all the fun was over, she was able to rest and read books with my dad....she loves when you will sit down to read to her.

It is hard to believe that she will be turning two in less than a week, she has really grown so much over the last couple of months and has really blossomed into a beautiful little girl. She is such a joy to have in our life and we are so thankful for her every day, yes...even on those days when she trys every bit of patients I have. She is really starting to talk more and express exactly how she is feeling with everything. She still loves to say Daddie and Mommie. She also looks forward to those times when she can talk to John on the phone and she is following in her daddies foot step by pacing all over the house every time she talks to him. It is so funny to watch!

Well, we hope you are all doing well and we will post more later.

Love,

The Andersons<><

After My Own Heart.....

Well these pictures were taken during our Easter weekend with my Grandparents and it was so wonderful to have beautiful days to play outside. Here are some pictures of Hailey showing off for her Great Grandpa! I am so excited that she has really loved throwing a softball and hitting off of her tee. I promise I did not push her into doing this or pay her to take these pictures; she is so talented already and does such a great job hitting either right handed or left....she is pretty equally on both. I also love how much my Grandpa is smiling in all these pictures and how he is already bragging about his grand daughter. It is such a wonderful blessing to have Hailey be able to get to know her great grandparents and spend time with them. They are so special to me and has always followed my softball career, so maybe they will follow Hailey as well one day!

Two Year Old Pictures.....

Here our Hailey's two year old pictures that we had done last week, when we went to get them done we thought this was going to be an easy process because usually when Hailey sees the lights flash, she is all smiles....well not this time. It didn't help that she didn't fall asleep until we pulled into the parking lot of Sears and then she was not really happy at first. While we were having them done, she was not wanting to smile or even sit where the lady told us to, so we were sure we had no good ones and that we just wasted our money....well we were suprised when she showed them to us, and we are pretty happy with them! We hope you guys enjoy looking at how much she has grown and also how much she still looks like her daddy!

Going to Church!

I couldn't help but post this picture of Hailey all dressed up for church, this was an outfit that her Aunt Carrie Andringa got her for Christmas. She looked so cute and even though we don't put pig tails in anymore we just love this picture. Hailey loves to go to church and play with all her friends. She gets mad at us now when we don't pray before dinner and you will find her sitting there in her highchair just waiting with her hands folded until we pray. It is so cute. She also loves to come up to us when we have our Bibles out and she will close them and proceed to pat them. This is something that her Sunday school class does and teaches them to pat the Bible. It was pretty cute at first, but when you are really trying to get some studying done, she makes it hard to do that. We even tried to give her a different book or something, but she is way too smart for that!

We are all doing well and just loving every minute we get to be together. We are so wonderfully blessed by God to have given us such a wonderful daughter, even though at times I want to pull my hair out, I am still very thankful that she is ours and that we have such a huge responisiblity to try to raise her up in a Christian home and allow her to learn about how much God loves her. What a wonderful calling in life to one day see your children grow up to serve the Lord.....I pray daily that the Lord will give us the wisdom and guidance to do this calling.

May God bless all of you and take care!

Love,
The Andersons<><

Our Little...Not So Little Girl!

Hailey when she was just born.....and here she is around Thanksgiving....I just wanted to go back and post a comparison picture of our little girl. It doesn't seem like she should be turning two in May, how time flys by so quickly. We were hoping that we would be able to post on here and tell all of you we were pregnant again, but we had a miscarriage. I was almost 9 weeks along and lost the baby right before Valentines Day, Though we are grieving and really having a hard time with this some days, I can't help but look back at our precious little girl and thank the Lord for what a wonderful blessing she is to us. Each day she makes me laugh, want to pull my hair out, but she loves me unconditionally and that is so precious. The Lord has a plan for our life and a plan for us as to when we will have another child, so we are leaving it all in His hands and allowing Him to work through us. He is an awesome God and we are so thankful for the little girl He has already given us. We love you all!

Hailey and Grady

Hailey, Grady sitting on Newt's (Crystal Allen) lap as she is reading them a book. This is such a huge milestone for Hailey as before she wouldn't even get close to Grady without crying. The kids also had such a great time playing in the toybox, they loved to both climb in it, but of course neither of them could get out of it. They were so funny playing together and we are so thankful that they can play nice and not have one or the other screaming every time they get close together. The adults also had a fun time getting caught up on each others news and just hanging out. The boys played Rock Band for a lot of the night, and the girls just talked and took care of the kids. What a wonderful night. We are so thankful for our friends Jonathon, and Newt, we love every chance we get to hang out and fellowship together. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Fun in the Snow and Big Girl Bed

Here are some pictures of Hailey and us enjoying the massive amounts of snow we had recently. She really liked it on Tuesday when it wasn't too deep. Wednesday it was pretty deep and hard to move in. We are so greatful for cousin Mia giving us a snow suit. I also put in some pictures of Hailey's big girl bed. It makes us excited and sad at the same time to have our girl growing up so fast.

We're Back

Sorry to all of you who were I am sure anxiously awaiting the latest update on the blog. With the computers crashing it has left us with no means for an update. I don't know how long this update will be as Hailey is "helping me". In fact she said she was going to write the rest of this.

Hello friends. I thought that I would share with you all some of my Christmas memories from this year. It all started with me helping Mommy wrap lots of presents. I was such a big help. I would grab the roll of paper and run the other direction so she could see all of it. I also thought that she needed some more practice at wrapping so I helped her unwrapping some of the gifts multiple times so she could perfect her skill. It was a blast. I got to see lots of special people over Jesus' Birthday including my Great Grandparents Browns and Goma and Gopa Danielson. I had a great time showing off for all of my friends and family.

I also got to see my Aunt Carrie and cousin Mia. We had so much fun. I thought Mia was very cool and also very funny. I really enjoyed playing hide and seek with her and then laughing until we both fell down. I know my Aunt Carrie loved to see me because she gave me lots of squeezes. I did really miss my Uncle Jason and Danny though.

That weekend I also got to play with all my cousins on the Danielson side which was so much fun. Me and all the other "little people" played a lot in the basement while our parents got to talk. My counsins Ian and Calvin and I even played some great piano music for eveyone. It was so much fun.

Since then, life has been good for us. I even have a new favorite activity, screaming... It is so fun and can serve multiple purposes. My mom and dad aren't quite sure that this is a good thing but I am working on them. I hope all of you are doing well and can't wait to hear from you all!!

Hailey