Hailey's Birthday Cakes

So we took on the job of making princess cakes. We were going to make one big doll cake but the store we went to didn't have the big pan, only the little pan. We found these little dolls especially for cakes - they stop at the hip and have a pointy stick at the bottom. We searched for about a week online before deciding exactly how we wanted to decorate them. They turned out pretty cute. Next time I will make the icing differently. I used a buttercream which called for milk. It didn't set up quite the way I wanted but overall, they turned out better than expected. We just used a flat spatula for the bottom of each dress and a star tip for the top. We never did eat them.

Hailey turns 4!

Austin and Hailey are pros at winning this game.

Hailey turned 4 on Feb. 20th. I posted the pictures in the wrong order...oops. She was so excited for her birthday to come. She picked out this outfit a few days earlier and begged me everyday to wear it. The morning of her birthday Austin had to work. So he set everything out in the kitchen for her. He bought balloons and put them all over the stairs. She got a big girl bike with training wheels. She's a pro. I must say, it is so nice to be able to send a 4 year old outside to ride a bike in February, with NO snow. Anyways, the whole day was all about her. Thanks to Grandma Vickie and Papa Frank for the outfit and doggie set. Grandma and Grandpa Cooper - we'll get a thank you note in the mail one of these days. She still has her $2 and is saving it for something really special she says. Angie - we got the hats about a week ago. Hailey wears it everyday - even if it doesn't match. She loves it and it looks adorable on her. Ash n' Vuvvy - one of Hailey's plants is really taking off. We water it every day. I think the packet said to put about 5 seeds in...or 15. Aus and Hailey got a little carried away. Grandma and Grandpa Mason, thanks for the shirt and socks and pencil set, she loves it. Mommy Jean and Papa gave Hailey a wooden monster to paint. Hailey's favorite thing to do is tell scary stories. So the monster was very appropriate. Papo and Tata got Hailey a leotard and skirt, belts and a little laptop. That night we went to John's Incredible Pizza. It was like ChuckECheese on steroids. It's huge - we had a lot of fun. They have all sorts of rides and games. They even had a minuture bowling alley with little tiny lanes and little balls - just perfect for little kids. It was a really good day.

Valntine's Day Vinyl

I'm really excited how this heart ornament design turned out!

Austin's First Day

Austin leaving for his first day.
Getting ready to leave at 5 am. I was up with him making sure that he had everything. He's wearing his sweatshirt over his uniform because they can't wear their uniform outside of the academy. It has to be covered up - even when they're driving.

Recruit Neilson

Austin started the Fire Academy yesterday YEAH! He had quite the day and quite the weekend leading up to his first day. Saturday night all the recruits had to get together and figure out everything they needed to get before Monday morning. Everything has to be uniform. They have to have the same pens, bags, notebooks, socks, water bottles EVERYTHING! We were out until midnight on Saturday night going to 3 WalMarts to find everything he needed. I was busy all weekend military pressing his Class B uniforms. I even had to iron his PT (Physical Training) uniforms - running shorts, t-shirt, sweatshirt. So prettymuch, if I don't do a perfect job creating perfect seams - he gets his face ripped off by the drill instructors. No pressure!

To add to the anxiety of Monday morning coming around, Austin went to lace up his boots (yes, this all has to be done the same - there are 5 ways to lace his type of boots and they all had to get together and figure out how to do it) and he had a size 10 and a size 12. We didn't find this out until 7:00 Saturday night and of course the place doesn't open until 9am Monday morning. He had to be there at 5:30 am Monday. He just wore two different size shoes and I get the great pleasure of trying to get him new ones today.

So on top of working full time, he'll go to the academy M-Th and all day Saturday. It's going to be interesting around here but we're so excited. I've never really had much of a schedule with Hailey as far as bed time goes but believe me - I'm starting one tonight! Otherwise, I might go nuts! I love my girls more than anything but mom has had it by the end of the night. I guess I'm a single mom M-Th (because Austin goes to work way before we ever wake up and won't get home from school until at least 11 pm) and a working mom the other 3 days of the week. This time in our lives will be interesting but very exciting.

Monday was quite interesting for Austin. This is a military style academy so they must stand at attention all the time. They have to do all those funny turns and walk in unisen. Everyone's head has to be shaved and their faces have to be smooth. I guess there was one kid who decided not to shave his head and so the drill unstructors cut his hair with regular scissors. Austin said it was all choppy...I guess he learned his lesson.

Captain House is a pretty scary guy and pretty intimidating. He would surely make me cry. Anyways, there was one point where Captain House was picking people out of line and making them come up to him and he'd be all up in their face trying to knit pick at anything he could. He called Austin up and was right in his grill. Austin said he had a smile on his face and said 'I like you. You're going to do well here.' He asked Austin if he scared him and Aus said yes. Captain House also said that Austin looked overwhelmed and then dismissed him. Well then, that couldn't have gone better. Let's keep Austin on his good side!

Well, I keep on how things are going with the Academy. We are so proud of him!

Pics of our Chunkers

We cannot leave Miley alone without her being strapped in for even a second. She'll turn and roll right out of it. I've had her in her chair without being strapped in and turn my head for one second and turned back around to find her out of her chair. She's ready to crawl anyday now. She gets up on both kneeds and rocks back and forth. And rolling...sometimes she thinkgs she's a ball because she just keeps going. We'll put one of her favorite toys on the floor on the other side of the room and before you know it, she'll have it.

Don't feed babies solids until 6 months...

Yeah right! Miley has been eating cereal for 2 months now and I pretty much give her bites of anything soft. It would be torture to try and get her to eat just a bottle. She still takes a bottle a few times a day but loses interest pretty fast. She's mastered every kind of baby food (except green beans or peas because I just don't want to deal with that:)) and squaks at you everytime she sees you eating something. She's a begger and usually gets what she wants. Hailey and I went to Costa Vida (our semi-close version of Cafe Rio) yesterday for lunch and Miley loved the tortilla and rice. Our pediatrician said not to start solids until 6 months...okay.

Hailey is now a Sunbeam

Hailey is so excited to be in Primary FINALLY! She was so done with nursery - although she really loved her teachers. It's so fun to see her so excited about church.

Christmas Pics!

Christmas morning. Maybe Hailey should have asked Santa for a comb!

Miley Jo and Papo Christmas Eve

All of our hard work.

Making cookies is not all it's cracked up to be!!!

The girl cannot seem to keep it covered up!

Hailey and mommy making cookies.

Hailey's cookies for Santa.

Christmas 2008

I'm not quite into the swing of this blog thing yet so my Christmas posting is a month or so late. Anyways, Christmas was really fun this year. Ashley and Kevin surprised us and drove from Utah to visit. Christmas Eve we decorated cookies for Santa and put out carrots for the reindeer. We had a really yummy Christmas Eve dinner with Prime Rib. During the day Ashley and I made 7-layer salad, Christmas Potatoes, Pasta Salad, the whole 9 yards! Of course TaTa had to work Chrismas Eve and the alarms wouldn't set. The people at the alarm company were not in the Christmas Spirit and wouldn't really help. So poor mama sat at the store by herself until Dad got there. Once they got home we were all ready to eat (and Hailey got to open a few presents). Christmas morning was good and Hailey got everything she wanted. [Even though she was threatened many times that Santa wouldn't bring her anything this year for Christmas:)] My uncle Chris says whoever came up with the terrible twos hasn't been through the threes yet. She'll be 4 next month so hopefully we're past all that. Anyways, I had to work Christmas Day. I started a new job in December at one of the new hotels by our house. We had a quick brunch after presents and all went to the movies. We saw Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler and it was cute. After that, we raced home because I had to work from 3-11. It was hard leaving Austin and the girls on Christmas but they came and visited me at work that night.

Some of Hailey's favorite presents...

Princess camping cot

Grandma Vickie's blanket

Princess trunk full of dress-up clothes

Coloring Contest

Hailey was a winner in the Rocklin Hot Chili Cool Cars coloring contest. She got to go to McDonald's and have an ice cream cone with the other winners. She also got a goody bag full of fun stuff. She was so thrilled to take Mommy Jean along with her. She was very proud!

Visitors

We were so lucky to have the Borchert family come visit us last weekend. We did so many fun things. We hadn't seen any of the kids since last February so it was fun to see how big they'd all gotten. The Friday they were here was Halloween and during the day we went to Bishop's Pumpkin Farm in Wheatland, CA. It is Hailey's favorite place! She talks about it all year long. In fact, when I was pregnant with Miley we'd tell her that the baby would come close to pumpkin time. I think she was secretly more excited for the pumpkins than the baby:) Anyways, the kids got to feed the goats. Kenna was the funniest to watch! What a girl! Baby Maggie wasn't scared at all. It was pretty cute. Just a fun thought...can you image a goat at Amanda's house - now that would make for funny tv - love ya Mand! We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and picked pumpkins. (they're rotting on the side of my house by the way) We ate some yummy pumpkin treats and headed home in time to get ready for trick-or-treating.

Hailey was a princess. Ash made the costume for her and did a great job! Miley was a ghost - her first Halloween. Check out the pics of all the kids in their cute costumes!

Saturday we picked up cupcakes at our favorite cupcake store - Icing on the Cupcake. It's Hailey's 2nd most favorite place! We brought them home, cut them up into sections and shared all of the different flavors. (As if the kids didn't already have enough sugar in them) We went bowling Saturday night and had a ton of fun.

Sunday was Miley's Blessing and ended up being a pretty cool Sunday. Austin, Ben and my dad were able to stand in the circle. Not only did Austin do a great job but to our ward's surprise, our Bishop was released and we got a whole new bishopric. We're sad we live too far away to have everybody there but maybe someday we'll be back closer.

Monday was the hard day. There were lots of tears when the kids had to leave. Hailey misses them everyday. It was really special for Hailey to have one on one time with her cousins.

Miley Jo

Our beautiful baby girl Miley Jo was born August 12, 2008. She weighed 8 pounds 5 oz. and was 21 1/4 inches long. She was born at 6:18 am. She has the most gorgeous red hair and tons of it! Hailey confessed a few weeks after we brought the baby home that she didn't think Miley's hair was pretty at the hospital but now she loves it and thinks it's beautiful.

She is the best baby! I thought she would be the hard one to take care of - oh boy was I wrong! The first few weeks were pretty hairy with big sis! It sure must be tough for a 3 year old to wrap her head around this huge change. Thank goodness my mom is so close. She helped me step back and realize that it was going to take time to get everybody adjusted. Now Miley is 13 weeks old and life has really calmed down. Hailey loves her little sister but still wants her alone time with daddy. Miley sleeps through the night and really only cries when she's hungry or wet. She rolled over for the first time last week and keeps getting better and better at it as the days go on. Here's some pictures of when she was first born. They sure do change quickly!

Blooming Words

Blooming Words is finally up and running! It's been over a year of hard work to make this happen. It's been quite the learning process and we feel we've barely scratched the surface. For those reading this that don't know what I'm talking about, we've started a vinyl lettering business. By 'we' I mean my mom, my sister and me. We've turned out to be quite the team. Learning new computer programs, learning how to work our equipment, staying up countless nights (while kids are sleeping) designing artwork just begins to tell the story of this last year.

Austin had 2 knee surgeries and a broken front tooth that needed an implant, Hailey turned 3 (now almost 4), we moved twice in 2 months - that's a fun story! ...and oh yeah, I had a baby. Beautiful Miley Jo.

I get to go back to work this week - which brings mixed feelings. It's good to be able to get out of the house a little but I still hate leaving my babies. They're in good hands so I feel very grateful I don't have to worry about them.

Check out our site at bloomingwords.com!