Baby Hailey

Family Pictures and long over due update!

2009-11-12T23:03:00.008-05:00

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!

2009-07-06T22:23:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-06T08:33:00.003-04:00

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!

2009-06-30T11:59:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-06-01T18:03:00.010-04:00

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!

2009-05-11T08:14:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-04-29T22:15:00.006-04:00

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.....

2009-04-29T22:05:00.003-04:00

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.....

2009-03-29T20:25:00.006-04:00

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!

2009-03-29T20:13:00.002-04:00

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!

2009-02-21T18:16:00.003-05:00

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

2009-02-21T18:09:00.004-05:00

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

2009-01-29T21:35:00.005-05:00

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

2009-01-26T20:29:00.008-05:00

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

Death to the Computers

2008-12-30T22:37:00.002-05:00

Okay, for all of you that keep up to date through out blog, we apologize. We have had a rough couple of months with the computer. We knew that we were going to have to get a new desk top in our computer room, but we were still trying to hold on to John's old computer that he had during college. Rest assured that it had multiple upgrades and a lot of new part on it. We were using out laptop all the time for most of our things any way and one night while John was working on his lesson for class, the tough old computer crashed for the last time. We were not even able to turn it on. So we had his cousin come over and help us try to save what we could, but there was no hope. So it took us a while to figure out what type of computer we were going to get and how much memory, and all the other important things you think about when buying a computer....we thought we had it all figured out, orderded and as soon as John hit the send button, the next day our laptop did the same thing and died completly. It was a rough night for us as we were panicked that all our pictures and eveything was on our laptop (yes we backed things up on our external hard drive) well we thought we did. So we are just now back up and running with two new computers and no pictures except for the ones we just took at Christmas. So we apologize for not putting any Halloween, or Thanksgiving posts, but we have had a rough time losing all our info. I promise to get some up soon and I hope that you are not having the time like we did with computers....God love em when they work right!

COSI- Center of Sciene and Industry

2008-10-30T12:54:00.008-04:00

Hailey and I had an opportunity to go with John to his course that he was taking for work in Columbus Ohio last weekend and after we had to check out of the hotel at noon, we had to find something to do until he was done at 5pm. So we went to a place called COSI. This was very similar to the Children's Museum in Indianapolis but it was a lot bigger. They had a place just for little kids where they could do a lot of pretending, climbing in this area that looks like a tree house, see turtles, and then of course her favorite area was the water. She was so wet when we were done, even though we had a rain coat on her, it really didn't work when you are pouring water down your shirt. Her other favorite area is the picture where there are animals on the wall and each of the buttons would make a sick noise when you pushed it. She would push the button and just laugh at it. It was pretty noisy when you had three or four kids pushing all the buttons, but she really enjoyed listening to each of the animals make a sick cough or sneeze. It was a neat little area for them. I was really impressed by all the different areas that they had and you could tell they were really trying to get the kids to imagine and learn about each of the areas. But it was a lot fun to let her run around and play with other kids there. She really had a good time and it was nice to take her to a new place to learn and just expand her learning.

Go Hoosiers!

2008-10-30T12:46:00.003-04:00

Here are some pictures of Hailey at the football game. Taking her to games now are not as easy as it use to be when she was little and would just sit there and watch the game. Now she is always wanting to go outside the suite and run around. I guess we have to say we are very blessed that Grandpa Danielson has a suite and then we are able to take her with us. What a blessing to let her be involved in some of the things we enjoy. We also thought you might enjoy the pictures of her reading books with Sally Ravensburg, she had a wonderful time sharing some of her favorite books with her. We also took a picture of us with Grandpa and Grandma Danielson before they left the game....enjoy!

Random Pictures

2008-10-29T19:55:00.006-04:00

Here are some of Hailey's new activities during the day, like taking Z's food and water and dumping it on the floor. She then thought it would be fun to throw it across the floor and then sit in it. It was funny at first, but after she thought it would be fun to try to eat it...we had to draw the line. Then she had a good time putting her sunglasses on and walking around like a princess. She was so cute as she use to never want to wear them and now she thinks they are the coolest thing. What a cutie.

The pictures of the cat is our newest member of our family, his name is Boots and we got him after we had to take Hailey to the doctor and have a procedure done. He is such a wonderful kitten and is so friendly. He lets Hailey pet him and he loves her....she spends a lot of the day back in the computer room watching and laughing at Boots. It was a good buy and it was actually John's idea who says he is not a cat person. We have come to the conclusion he is a softee and really does like cats, just never wanted to let us know.

AU Homecoming!

2008-10-29T19:50:00.002-04:00

We had a wonderful timing hanging out at Anderson University the other day and we had a great opportunity to take Hailey to one of Elizabeth Turner's volleyball game. Even though Hailey was having more fun playing with the dog that was in the gym, it was still a lot of fun to get to see Elizabeth play. She did well and we had a wonderful time letting her run around the gym before the game. We sure do miss having Elizabeth watch Hailey, but we are so glad she is having a good year at AU. Go Ravens!

Who are you voting for?

2008-10-29T19:47:00.001-04:00

John wanted to get a picture of Hailey sitting by his sign for Mitch Daniels the other day....he finally succeeded!

Bad Hair Day!

2008-10-29T19:44:00.001-04:00

I know that this will probably haunt Hailey when she gets a little older, but we couldn't help. The other day, when she was still sleeping, we took a picture of her bed head. The funny thing is this is how her hair looks most of the days as she is someone who plays with her hair and then also rolls all over the bed at night. Hope it makes you laugh!

A Time to Remember

2008-10-13T13:18:00.004-04:00

Recently, I have been going through a lot of our old posts and so many of the pictures we had taken during the first year of Hailey's birth and think about all the many firsts she went through. I am so thankful and blessed that we have been able to enjoy all of Hailey's firsts and I can't be more happy to be a mom than I am right now. Even though it is so hard to not miss the days when she was first born and we could lay her on our lap and rock her to sleep. Or all the times we would just look at her and be in tears as she was such a little miracle and such a blessing. There are days that I miss her being that little, but I am so thankful for all the interacting she does with us now and just how much fun it is to go outside and run around with her. She is still our little girl and even though she is growing way to fast, we do still love every new first she does. We hope that you will enjoy the pictures we posted many of her first month at home, to her now....oh how time goes by too fast and how we should hold on to every minute we have with them as they grow way to fast!

Score!

2008-10-13T13:07:00.003-04:00

We found this little basketball goal at a garage sale for a couple of dollars and we thought that Hailey may enjoy playing with it after we gave her some instructions on how to shoot and so forth....well we gave her a ball and before we knew it (actually the first time she shot the ball) she already knew how to score! From some of the pictures, you can see that she can palm the little ball, which is more than her mom could do, but she really enjoys playing with it. I love how she will hold on to the rim and then look at us as if she was saying, "this is way too easy." I can't tell you how smart of a little girl she is, she loves to learn and figure things out. She is such a huge blessing to us!

New Pet and New Outfit

2008-09-30T21:16:00.004-04:00

Hailey is really starting to do some new things, like walking her pet dog Brutus, on a leash. She loves to walk Brutus around all the time and it is so funny to see Z watch her and then go and sniff the stuffed animal. It was neat to see her actually start getting into some stuff animals and this pet dog was a gift to her from Nila and Rex. She loves to give him kisses and she will take him up to you and want you to hug and give some love to him. It is so cute to watch her play with it.

I also posted some pictures of her in her new Gap sweatshirt that we found. We had put this on her as we went outside for a walk and we just had to take a picture as we thought she was so cute! Of course we are a little bias, but we are so thankful for how well she is doing and just how she is such a ball of energy every day. She is so special to us and we are so thankful for her each day.

Hailey's Backpack

2008-09-30T21:09:00.003-04:00

I couldn't help but post these new pictures of Hailey wanting to carry her own backpack. This is her backpack that we use when we are going on bike rides or for the nursery at church. She is just now really wanting to carry things and be so much more independent. It made me laugh how big the backpack looks on her, but she is still very cute carrying it around the yard.

Forget Me Not Photos

2008-08-26T11:15:00.006-04:00

We recently had some family pictures taken for Hailey's first birthday and we thought we would post them on the blog so you could see them. Of course this is not all of them, but we didn't want to load all of them as it would take a while. We hope you enjoy them and that you are all doing well. Leave comments and let us know what you think!

Love,
The Andersons<><

Chicago

2008-08-26T10:46:00.007-04:00

Hailey and I were able to take a trip to Chicago to see the Denman's. We had such a wonderful time letting the girls play and we had such a wonderful time taking them around Chicago and letting them play at the playground. We has such a great time even though Hailey did not like Jade (their dog) at all and was scared at times to even get off the couch. So that was rough on all of us as Jade just wanted to show Hailey that she loved her. It was nice to be able to go and have some time with Denise just to talk and hang out. She is such a wonderful Christian lady and I am so thankful she is my cousin and friend. I am also very thankful that John allowed his girls to be gone for a couple of days and that he is so willing to allow me the opportunity to visit my friends. We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Did Someone Call For a Doctor?

2008-08-06T18:08:00.003-04:00

Hailey recently got a little doctor set and ever since she got it she has loved to play with the stethoscope and the shot....it is amazing to me the things she enjoys playing with. She put the stethoscope around her neck and likes to run around the house with it and if it isn't around her neck, then she will carry it on her arm like a purse. She enjoys coming up to you and putting it somewhere on your body and act like she is listening. She is so cute and if she is really going to be a doctor we should start saving a lot more than we are now!!!

A Full Day

2008-08-06T17:55:00.004-04:00

Here are just some pictures of Hailey playing throughout the day and finishing the day with a mess at dinner. Now that she is trying to be so independent, cleaning up takes a lot longer followed by clothes off and straight to the tube!

Family Picture

2008-07-29T08:08:00.002-04:00

Ok for all those people who read our blog and then tell us that we never put family pictures on there, here you go. This is the most recent family picture that we had taken this weekend. We hope that you enjoy it! We hope to hear from you.

Love,
The Andersons<><

I love my cousins!

2008-07-29T07:46:00.009-04:00

Wow, what a wonderful week we had last week as we were able to let Hailey play with her cousins Danny and Mia who visited us from the Netherlands. The kids played so well together and every morning when we would wake up Hailey wanted to go to the door and see her cousins. She loved being able to go to the zoo, the children's museum and just play every day at Papa and Mimi's house. During the visit, Danny (who is almost five) told us that he wished Hailey didn't have to go home and that Hailey was there's...it was so cute and just melted your heart. It was so neat to watch them share their toys, and do pretty much everything together.

John and I were able to get some time to be with his sister Carrie and her husband Jason during the week as well. We enjoyed dinners out and LOTS of shopping as we helped Carrie get a lot of things checked off her list. It was so nice to see them and just enjoy time together. We are so thankful that they were willing to come and be with us....

All in all it was a long week as we all are pretty much exhausted, but it was one of those week where each day was a new blessing and a moment to remember. We are so thankful to have such wonderful family and we love them all so much!

Enjoy the many pictures we have posted of the kids playing!

Hailey and Owen

2008-07-29T07:36:00.004-04:00

Here are some pictures of Hailey playing with one of her best friends Owen Stout....they had a great time playing in the pool outside, even if Owen wasn't so sure about getting in at first. After a while, he started to really like the water and he even started splashing Hailey (which she had no problem with it)! But then Hailey wanted to escape and climb out of the pool so she could walk. They also had a great time playing with some of Hailey's toys inside and we called it a day when they both were exhausted. It was a great time for the kids to play together and for Rebecca and I to have some time together as well.

walking all by myself!

2008-07-29T07:29:00.005-04:00

We finally were able to take some pictures of Hailey walking and so I hope you will enjoy these. She is always so proud when she walks all by herself and then will turn around and see that we are not right behind her. She is growing up so fastly and we are loving all the new phase she is going through. We thought she was fast with crawling, you should check her out when she walks!

A Total Mess

2008-06-26T09:14:00.006-04:00

Okay, I promise this is my last post of the day, but I really needed to get all the pictures and activities up on the blog...so for all of those out there that give me a hard time about not posting, I think I have fulfilled my quota.

After we went to the zoo and then went to John's work to let Hailey spend some time with him, we came home and had some dinner. Well, Hailey is really into doing everything herself, even if it means a huge mess and everything going straight into the wash and taking her straight to the bath. She didn't want to eat her mac and cheese unless she did it herself and so that lead into her taking her plate and trying to lick it and then dumping it all out. Needless to say you can see from the pictures she was a mess, but she really did enjoy the time she made a mess. For those doubters out there, she really did eat a fair amount of mac and cheese. John and I were laughing hysterically as she was just kept getting more and more in her hair and on her....it was pretty funny! And it kept her from crying through the whole dinner....the things you do to make them happy especially as she keeps trying to do everything on her own.

We hope you have enjoyed our new post and they have made you laugh.

Love,
The Andersons<><

Indianapolis Zoo

2008-06-26T09:03:00.005-04:00

We are extremly blessed that John's parents have purchased the grandparents pass so they can spend time with their grandchildren and allow us the opportunity to go to the zoo and the Children's Museum. We took Hailey to the zoo yesterday and she loved it. We were able to see a lot of the animals and we even enjoyed out first train ride around the zoo. Even though we had to do a lot of getting her in and out of the stroller to show her the animals, she still really liked it. I was a little nervous as she started to cry when we were looking at the bear and trying to take a picture, but she recovered and had a wonderful time. She even cried when the rooster crowed, but all in all she had a wonderful time getting to see all the animals and play on the playground....it was so neat to be able to be together and do special things with her and make her days filled with special things.

Children's Museum

2008-06-26T08:49:00.006-04:00

We had such a wonderful time taking Hailey to the Children's Museum and she just loved it. The nice thing about it is there is a place called Play Scape for children under the age of 5 and there are so many neat things for them to play with. She just loved it and we didn't even do all the things that were in there. She loved being able to play with her favorite things....water and sand. She also really enjoyed going down the slide which she has just started to like doing that. It was nice cause we went early in the morning and so there were not a lot of kids in there and so she was able to run and play. We all had a wonderful time going together and enjoying her first experience with the museum. We ever took her on her first carousel ride and she enjoyed it, only if she was clinching her mother! We wore her out so much that by the time we went down to eat lunch she was sound a sleep in her stroller, she was exhausted! It was a wonderful time together as a family and we are excited to go back again soon!

I am so cool!

2008-06-26T08:08:00.003-04:00

This was the first time Hailey let us put sunglasses on her and after we clapped and cheered for her, she kept them on for a little while. She also thought it was pretty cool to do it herself, even if she didn't always put them on right. She also thought it would be pretty funny to jump in her pool after we were done taking a walk outside to cool....that is the reason she still has her clothes on and not her bathing suit! She is getting so big and truly loves the little things we do during the day.

Playing at the play ground.....

2008-06-18T09:03:00.009-04:00

I couldn't help but put a lot of pictures of Hailey bug playing at the play ground. Since John has been home for the last couple of weeks, it has been nice to all do things together and one of Hailey's favorite things is to go outside. She loves this little play ground we have in our neighborhood and we put her on the swing for the first time. As you can see from the pictures she loves it! She just laughs and smiles so big. It is so wonderful to see her have so much fun with the littlest things. She also enjoyed playing in the water that collected at the end of the slide as well. We took Z with us and even though he enjoyed the walk, he didn't have as much fun as Hailey did. It was a wonderful time as a family and we are sure there will be more trips to the playground as Hailey will go to her stroller and cry if we don't put her in it to go outside. She loves the outdoors!

First Steps...Finally!

2008-06-10T14:47:00.003-04:00

I apologize for not being able to put a video or a picture of her walking, but to be honest she just did it at home. John is at home recovering from thumb surgery and while we were there, she stood up be herself and then took her first steps without us bugging her to do. We were so excited and even more excited for John to be able to see it. I am sure there is more to come from her, but we were so proud of her as she took her first steps and stood up without our help.....what a big girl!

Hailey's Favorite Things To Do.

2008-06-06T08:57:00.003-04:00

We wanted to post some of our favorite pictures of Hailey bug....we have some of her dong her favorite thing, which is showing us that she wants us to read her a book. There are some that are her favorite and that she wants read all the time. There also is a picture of her standing up on the entertainment center and it makes her look so big. She is growing so much and really wanting to stand and reach for things. Then we have one of her and John outside...before we took that picture she wanted to sit in the grass, but didn't want to touch it. Now she is finally wanting to walk in it and so it is not such a big thing for her. Before she would cry if you tried to put her in it. So she has come a long way. But all in all she would play outside all day if we would let her...we hope you enjoy the pictures.

Love,
The Andersons

Daddy's Money

2008-06-03T15:51:00.001-04:00

Hailey thought that it would be fun to go through daddy's wallet the other day and see if she could find some money. We were talking about how we were already in trouble if she was trying to get our charge card and taking John's money. It was so funny to see how she would just throw it around and laugh....she was so cute!

Birthday continuation.....

2008-06-03T15:40:00.004-04:00

Well, we had just a wonderful time celebrating Hailey's first birthday....and so we finally have had a couple minutes to sit down and post the rest of her pictures. It was such a wonderful time for her to be able to have some fun with all her friends and family. It was wonderful to get to see some of our family and friends that we have not had a chance to get to see recently. She only had a couple of melt downs and that was in partly due to her not having enough sleep for the day. But all in all she did wonderful and we loved watching her have fun. We had to put a picture of her knocked out after it all was over to show you how cute she was.

How Cute!

2008-06-03T15:36:00.001-04:00

I couldn't help but post this picture of Hailey falling asleep on Lindsey Reed. Lindsey is a good friend of ours who plays on the softball team that we coach and her and Brian (her boyfriend) were over one night and she got Hailey to go to sleep on her. All it took was for her to read Hailey "hand hand finger thumb" book....a lot of times!

Hailey's First Birthday....part 1

2008-05-13T10:39:00.007-04:00

It is hard to believe that we just celebrated Hailey's first birthday. There are days that it seems like we just brought her home from the hospital just yesterday, but we are very grateful for how I was feeling this year at Mother's Day and her birthday....a much better feeling than a year ago!

Here are some pictures of two of Hailey's birthday parties as we had to celebrate with John's family before they left to visit his family in Iowa and then a celebration with my parents and grandparents. She had a wonderful time diving into the birthday cake and cupcakes. Her Gramie also gave her a piece of corn and she ate it like a pro....even though she has only two teeth! She loved all the gifts that she received and we are so happy that she finally got her first softball glove, soccer and football. She loved being able to spend time with her family and see everyone.

She continues to grow and change with each day. She is almost walking now but we are still enjoying her as she is crawling all over the place. She is into everything and is so smart. She really loves it when we read her books and she will be sure to tell you exactly which book she wants. She is such a blessing to us and we love her so much.

More pictures to come later as we have her play group on Friday for her birthday...hang tight!

Love,
The Andersons<><

A Full Day of Easter Fun....

2008-03-29T17:52:00.004-04:00

Well, Hailey's first Easter was one filled with many different people and places....
Hailey was able to spend a lot of Saturday with Uncle Steve and Melissa at Gramie and Grandpa's house....she once again enjoyed the time she was able to spend with Gramie and of course did a lot of showing off. Then we went to Connersville to let her spend some time with her Great Grandparents....even though she hated the chicken Great Grandpa sent her way, she still enjoyed crawling all over and showing them how much she had grown.

We started our Sunday out going to church and she had to sit with us since the nursery was full. Oh how nice it is when she is in the nursery and we can enjoy the service! After church we went to Michael and Sonia's house to spend time with them. Hailey and Ian had a wonderful time playing together, even though Ian didn't like his mommy to hold Hailey. He was very nice about sharing his toys though and they had a great time together. Then we were able to spend time with John's grandparents in New Castle. She had a wonderful time showing off for GoPa and GoMa, she was all over the house and showed them all her tricks. Needless to say by the end of the day she was exhausted with all the Easter fun we had.

Play Hard.....Rest Hard

2008-03-26T21:09:00.002-04:00

We wanted to post some pictures of Hailey standing up and moving along all our furniture and with toys. We also thought it was really funny some of the positions she is now falling a sleep in. She is such a wonderful little girl and we hope you enjoy our pictures of how much she is growing.

Love,
The Andersons<><

Hailey's New Friend!

2008-03-20T22:37:00.004-04:00

I am sorry for all of you boys out there that thought you had a chance at getting Hailey as your girlfriend....she is taken by Graiden Allen! Just the other night they decide to take each other's pacie and no matter which one they had, they wanted the other one. So it was pretty comical to watch how they would just take it from the other person. They had a good time doing it though....my friend Crystal said that she was going to tell Graiden that he kissed a girl when he was 10 months old....or as close to kissing as baby can! :) I couldn't help but laugh at them and they just have a wonderful time when they get together and play. Graiden is a total boy and is a little rough with Hailey, but it is okay because she needs to toughen up some. They are so cute though and we are so thankful for our wonderful friends. They are such a blessing to John and I and we love being able to hang out with them.

All Over the Place.....

2008-03-13T09:46:00.004-04:00

Here are a few pictures of Hailey's favorite things to do...she loves getting into Z's toys and making him mad, and she loves to crawl all over the place. She is actually crawling places and then pulling herself up. She has grown so much and she also loves to walk behind some of her toys, like the lion her favorite Aunt got her for Christmas and then also the car her Uncle bought her. It is also pretty entertaining to watch her crawl into a room and shut the door so she thinks no one sees her. It is so funny how quickly they learn. We also have found her sitting on the floor with crayons all over the place or tissues torn up....she is a character, but we love her a ton!

Hailey's Baby Dedication

2008-03-13T09:15:00.005-04:00

I wanted to post some of our pictures from Hailey's baby dedication. She was dedicated on January 27th at East 91st Street Church in Indianapolis. It was such a special day for us as we were blessed to have both of her grandparents here to share the day with us.

What does it mean to dedicate your child? Basically it is a public statement that you are going to do your best to raise your child up in a Godly home and share the Lord with her. You promise to love her and to commit yourself to raising her up in the way of the Lord. John and I have committed ourselves to showing Hailey how much the Lord loves her and to do our best to raise her the best way we know how. Part of the dedication is also knowing that your church, family and friends are praying for you and your family. What a blessing to know that there are many people who love us enough to commit to praying daily for our family. It was such a wonderful day for us as a family to share together.

British Virgin Islands

2008-03-12T22:01:00.004-04:00

Okay, so I know that it has been forever since I have last updated our blog....what can I say when I am chasing Hailey all over the place it is very hard to sit and update. Plus, she loves to try and help me type and do things on the computer that she usually deletes whatever it is that I am working on....so forgive us.

We wanted to post a couple pictures from our trip that we took to the British Virgin Islands with John's family. We had a wonderful time together despite all of us getting the stomache flu. The picture of the water is actually the view we had all week long outside our window. It was so beautiful there and we just loved the time we had to reflect and get alone time with God. How can you not be see Him in something as beautiful as that? All in all we had a wonderful time snorkeling, laying on the beach, playing in our own pool, driving the golf cart to different places, and of course having nice dinners out. It was such a beautiful place to visit, but one that was a hard trip with Hailey. She did great, don't get me wrong, but it was a full day of travel along with a lot of different custom checks and things.....so all in all a long day.

I was lucky enough to get the flu on our longest flight from San Juan to Dallas and it was so bad that I ended up having to get IV fluids before they would let me fly on our next flight. Needless to say I did not make the connecting flight to Indy and John and I had to stay in Dallas for the night. It was so bad though because I was still trying to nurse Hailey, but was unable to really do that much since we all had been sick. Since she does not take formula we talked to our doctor and ended up just going straight to whole milk. All in all she has done great with the transition and is doing well.

Well, lots going on in our life and we hope that we can stay in touch with all of you. We are trying to figure out if we are going to do a new website or keep this one, so if you get on and read our blog please post something so we know who all is getting on and if it is worth keeping up. Thanks!

Love,
The Andersons<><

Christmas with the Brown Family

2008-01-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

Well, we wanted to post some of our most recent pictures of Hailey's first Christmas. It is going to take multiple postings since we were blessed to have so many different Christmas parties with all of our families. So here is the first one with my side of the family. This is my mom's parents and siblings that we were at. We had a wonderful time as Hailey got some wonderful gifts from her Favorite Aunt and her great Grandparents. In the pictures she is being held by her Favorite Aunt Nancy and then she is riding on her lion that was a gift. She is also sitting with my mom as she was playing with the bow.

This season allows me to sit and watch how wonderful our family really is and how we continue to do and serve each other. We are so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our lives and one that openly accepts our daughter and loves her as one of their own. We are so thankful to be able to share in this wonderful holiday season and the birth of our Lord and Savior.

We hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and many more posts to come.

Love,
The Andersons

Christmas with the Williamsons

2007-12-20T09:24:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-11-26T14:41:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-11-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-25T21:46:00.000-05:00

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!

2007-11-13T13:56:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-12T19:55:00.000-05:00

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

2007-11-08T14:23:00.000-05:00

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

2007-10-25T21:22:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-10-17T21:06:00.001-04:00

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

2007-10-16T20:46:00.000-04:00

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

2007-09-14T16:25:00.000-04:00

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!

2007-09-05T18:31:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

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

2007-08-17T17:56:00.001-04:00

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

2007-08-17T11:17:00.001-04:00

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!

2007-07-30T10:29:00.000-04:00

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.

We Survived!

2007-07-24T10:37:00.000-04:00

We have survived our first set of shots and I have to say that it was not a good time. Hailey did wonderful at the doctors office on the 19th of July and was just smiling at the nurse and physician until she received all three shots. From that point on, we knew it was going to be a rough couple of days. Overall, she did very well, but we had a couple of days of her running a fever, really fussy and had a hard time sleeping at night. I felt so bad for her and I was probably more nervous about the appointment than she was seeing how she had no idea what she was in for. Thankfully we don't have to go back for another two months! Her measurements this appointment were: she is weighting 9lbs 13ounces and she is 22 3/4 inches long. She has gained some weight, but her length has slowed a little. Which is good because right now she is still wearing newborn pants and shorts, but her onesies are 0-3months since she is so long. But she is still looking cutier than ever!

Hailey's newest activities include playing on her playmate and kicking the little beach ball. I have a feeling we might have a soccer player on our hands because one of the first times she was playing on the mate, she was getting upset because the ball was going side to side and so she put both feet up there and trapped the ball. She actually held her legs off the ground and trapped the ball for a good minute. Then she started to kick it again and just laughed. She is really getting into books and she loves to read with mommy. Even though she stares at me while I am reading the book to her, she will occasionally look at the pages. We took our first walk with her brother Z outside in the Baby Bjorn, and she left the house awake, but came back asleep. It was nice to know she will like walking in the Bjorn and that way we know it will make our trip a lot easier on us. As you can see in one of the pictures her brother is making sure she is being watched over as he loves to lay right by her playmate and watch her. He is still jealous, but does love his sister.

We are in the process of getting ready for a family trip to Hilton Head Island and we are leaving on the 4th of August...we all are so excited and ready to be out in the sun and walking the beach. We truly have a wonderful time when we get a chance to go and we are so excited to take Hailey on her first vacation. Hopefully she will do well on the plane and will have a good time with her family. We will be sure to send pictures and put up new posts while we are away.

We hope everyone is doing well and we look forward to time spent together. Have a wonderful day and God bless you all!

Love,
The Andersons

Two Months

2007-07-10T18:42:00.000-04:00

Well, Hailey is now almost nine weeks old and it is so hard to believe. She has grown so much, even though some people still consider her small. She is really starting to coo a lot more and she loves looking at her hands. She has not found her feet yet, but she is really moving around recently. We are starting to get into a pattern as far as her feeding, play time and then nap time. She still has some great nights of sleep where she is sleeping for 4-5 hours at a time. She has loved the opportunity to get to meet many of her family members, including her Uncle Joe who came in for the fourth of July and also her "Great" Aunt Nancy, Uncle Ron and cousin Kyle. So she has loved getting her pictures taken with all her family.

Hailey is really feeling better as we now have my diet under control and we can see such a huge change in her. She is hardly ever fussy after eating and that is such a blessing. Her gas pain is under control and she is doing so much better. She has never really been a "bad" baby, but she is really back to being content again. She has also survived her first injury....her brother (our dog Zachariah) was playing with his dog bone and he loves to throw it across the room and chase it. Well, he threw it and it hit Hailey in the head. She cried, but was pretty tough through it all. I think Z was more scared than she was as he followed her around the rest of the night and laid right by her side. He still is not playing with his bone.

John's job is going great as he is always busy with new patients on his schedule and almost always has a full schedule. He loves it when his daughter gets to come to work and eat lunch with him, even though a lot of the times she is usually sound asleep. He truly love showing her off! He has also been extremely blessed to be able to share his relationship with Christ to many of his patients. It has truly been an eye opener to know that in just about every conversation, he is able to talk about church or Christ in some way. We pray that he will continue to be able to share all that the Lord has done for him and allow his patients to see his relationship that he has with the Lord daily.

Well, that is about all that is new with the Andersons...we hope you all continue to enjoy the updates and we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you again to everyone who continue to pray daily for us and for our beautiful daughter Hailey Renee. God bless you all!

Love,
The Andersons

Meeting Family

2007-07-02T09:29:00.000-04:00

Hailey is having a great time getting to meet all of her family members and meeting her new little cousins. Even though her cousins make her look even smaller than what she is, she still loves hanging out with them. We have been blessed that our grandparents, Hailey's great grandparents are in such good health and have been able to hold her and take many fourth generation pictures. (The picture posted is one of our fourth generation pictures that is on my dad's side of the family, The Wood family.)

We have been really working with Hailey to sleep through the night and we are pretty close. She is only eating twice now during the night and will usually sleep for a good 4-5 hours at a time. We have been stretching out her feeding time during the day and so that has helped a lot not only with her sleeping pattern, but also with her stomachaches. It has truly been an answer to prayer that we finally think we figured out what was causing her so much pain and discomfort. After I had been on antibotics for an extended period of time, we have finally stopped them and I am recovered now. However, we were still having some problems with her having stomache aches and things, and we found out she is lactos intolerance. We had two options of putting her on expensive formula or just take dairy out of my diet. We wanted to continue breast feeding her, so we decieded to take dairy out of my diet. I have to say that has been a huge adjustment and one that has been frustrating for me because of how much I love dairy. But we felt this was just so much better for her and she has really started to feel better all around. She is now back to her old self of being very content and just laughing all day. So we thank God for this answer to prayer and just pray it continues to improve.

While I sit and think about the sacrifices that mothers and fathers chose to do or are asked to do because of a health concern, it makes me think and appreciate even more all that Christ went through for us. Even though taking dairy out of your diet is a small sacrifice compared to what all Christ suffered, it is still a sacrifice and an expression of love that we are displaying to our child. I have to say that ever since I have become a mother, I am realizing all the sacrifices and ways that we are called to put ourselves second for your child and family. There is so much love that I have for Hailey and one that amazes me because of all the love that continues to grow with each day. Truly a wonderful expression of how the Lord loves all His children and are delighted when mothers and fathers chose to raise their child in the way of the Lord and allows Christ to be the head of their household.

Well, I have written all that time will allow as my child is ready to eat. We will continue to write more later. God bless you all!

Love,
John, Sue and Hailey

Growing too Quickly

2007-06-20T20:37:00.000-04:00

Hailey is now 6 weeks old and she is changing so much. With each day we can see more development from her and continue to thank the Lord for her health. She is now taking a bottle once a day and daddy loves the opportunity to feed her. Even though there are times it seems like a struggle to get her to take the whole bottle without falling asleep, other than that she is doing great with bottle feeding. She is really starting to notice everyone voice and she loves to stare at you and smile. She is already lifting her head off our shoulder or chest. She went to the doctor yesterday and she has gained two pounds. She weighs 7lbs and 7ounces and is 22 inches long. Even Dr. Paula commented that she is going to be long and skinny....just like her daddy. She is in the 5th percentile for weight, and her length is in the 95th percentile, but is still very healthy and gaining weight. I still can't believe that it has been six weeks since she was born, it truly goes to show that time flies by so quickly. Mommy still loves being at home with her and we enjoy reading books and talking to each other. Even though she is not always taking many naps during the day, I still find time to get things done around the house. She still sleeps between 2-5 hours at night and on the occasion I get her to sleep 5 hours, I still get up to check on her to make sure she is okay. But she is really doing great! We continue to thank God daily for such a miracle of life and we pray that will be able to raise her in the way of the Lord. Thank you to everyone who keeps her in your prayers and for all the encouraging phone calls and conversations.

2007-06-10T19:12:00.000-04:00

Well Hailey is over a month old. I apologize for not updating the blog since week 1. I guess you can say we have been pretty busy. The highlights of the last few weeks have been visits from lots of family members including all the Danielson's over Memorial Day weekend. Hailey was very well behaved and we had lots of fun. We also got to spend lots of time with Aunt Carrie, and cousins Danny and Mia. We have really enjoyed this last month with Hailey and she is such a miracle. We love you all.

1 Week Old

2007-05-16T12:12:00.000-04:00

Today is Hailey's one week birthday!!! Today was our actual due date but we are glad that we had her last week. I asked Sue if she wanted to do all of this again this week and after giving me "the look" she said no. Hailey has been sleeping alright. She has varied between 2 and 5 hours at a time. Her favorite activities are still eating, sleeping and snuggling with mom, dad and many other people who have come to visit me. Sue is slowly starting to feel better. Hailey also met the other member of our family when Z came home. Z has really done well with her and is protective of his new little sister.

Home

2007-05-12T21:03:00.000-04:00

Well we finally made it home. At 11 am we made the long trip home (only 2 miles). Hailey has made a good adjustment to life in her new house. Besides a 15 minute bout of hiccup induced screaming she has been happy as a clam. We really appreciated all the great nurses and doctors at HRH. They definitely went the extra mile. We have had lots of guests since Hailey has arrived. She has been held and photographed with many new friends and family members. Sue is feeling much better but is still sore. Overall, we are doing great. We can't wait to hear from and or see all of you.
Love,
The Andersons

Day 2

2007-05-11T09:54:00.000-04:00

Hailey has found her two newest activities: eating, sleeping and sometimes a combination of the two. Hailey is a very good baby and has for the most part not been too fussy. She only seems to cry when it is time to eat again. I have loved to meet lots of new friends and family members. I love to snuggle ecspecially with my mommy. All the doctors and nurses have all been great and they all seem to comment on how beautiful Hailey is. We tend to agree. Sue is starting to feel better and really loves being a mother. We again thank all of you for the love, support and prayers.
- The Andersons

2007-05-10T11:10:00.000-04:00

I tried to put these in the post above but they didn't work so hopefully they do now.

The Arrival

2007-05-10T10:20:00.000-04:00

Well, the day has finally arrived and baby Hailey came flying (almost literally) into the world. After 3 hours of true labor she arrived. I think everyone including the doctor and nurses underestimated Sue's strength as she got her out in 6 pushes. Our doctor almost missed catching her but thankfully he has quick hands. Hailey was 20.5 inches and weighed 5 lbs and 3.7 ounces. Mom has had a rough time since delivery dealing with some blood loss but she is doing as she would say, "Great". We thank everyone for their continued thoughts and prayers. More to come later.
-John, Sue and Hailey Renee