One Year!!

*Just realized that I never posted this! Better late than never!

Haleigh turned 1 on Saturday! Given all of the changes within the last year, it's no wonder it seems to have flown by! I had to do a little double-take though when I received my weekly babycenter.com update...instead of saying "Your Baby this Week" it said, "Your Toddler this Week." Excuse me?!? A Toddler?!? Sounds like they are rushing things a bit to me:)

It is true, though, that she is becoming less and less of a baby and more and more of a little girl. She is full of personality, has some pretty adorable facial expressions and loves to laugh!

Sleeping: This hasn't changed much; Haleigh goes to bed around 7:00pm and sleeps as long as Annaliese will let her. Usually this means she's awake by 7:00 am. Haleigh still takes two naps/day varying in length from 1-2 hours.

Eating: Everything! Haleigh-bear loves to eat!! She will frequently pack away more food than Annaliese does! Favorite foods include green beans, bananas, and steak. She is still drinking milk from a bottle, although we have introduced whole milk and she is currently drinking a mixture of whole milk and formula. She will use a sippy cup for water and juice though.

Teeth: Haleigh has 8 teeth; 4 on the bottom and 4 on the top. There has been an increase in drooling lately so I'm expecting to see another emerge sometime in the near future.

Clothes: All of her clothes are 12 months or 12-18 months and some of the stretchy 12 month pants are starting to get a big snug. This girl has some thighs!! And quite the little belly as well!

Favorites include: playing outside, putting objects into a box or basket, eating, bathtime, having her teeth brushed, anything Annaliese is doing, her purple bunny, orange juice, being tossed in the air, and 'dancing.'

The Sehome Arboretum and Taylor Dock

On Saturday we decided to get outside and go for a little walk/hike. I had heard good things about the Sehome Arboretum, on the campus of Western Washington University so we thought we'd give it a try. We hiked up to the Observation Tower and, although it had a nice view and Annaliese loved climbing all the steps, it also smelled like beer and weed so we didn't stay long.

Annaliese stepped on this bug...and it didn't even seem to notice!

 Once we got down from the tower, Annaliese just wanted to run! She would run way ahead of us and then turn around and come running back! Pretty impressive considering she also had crazy amounts of diarrhea all weekend. Favorite quote of the weekend: "Mom, my butt keeps peeing."

She thought she needed to use the bathroom...but she said she wanted to use a real toilet. So she waited until we got home!

This walk ended up being rather short, mostly because Kyle's feet hurt, Annaliese wouldn't pee in nature, and Haleigh-bear was overly tired and wouldn't stop crying! But we weren't quite ready to just go home so we headed to Fairhaven and Taylor Dock. Taylor Dock is basically a boardwalk out over the water that ends at a coffee shop and park. 

 Clearly excited to be in the stroller...

Our walk ended at Woods Coffee so some hot chocolate and banana bread put everyone in a better mood!

Not so sure about the whipped cream!

It's Party Time!

Haleigh turned one on March 7 so I'm a few weeks late, but we just celebrated her birthday on Sunday and I wanted to include some photos from that day! 

Her actual birthday was a low-key day. We spent the morning home as a family and she was able to open her gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Gillette and the rest of the Gillette side of the family.

 Checking out the water table from Uncle Jon, Aunt Sarah, Reed and Keiran

A sock monkey Jack-in-the-box...they both love it and totally anticipate what happens as the music plays!

Annaliese was a big helper when it came to opening presents!

Throughout the week, she was able to put all of her new toys to good use! (Annaliese has been enjoying them too!)

On Sunday, we had Grandpa and Grandma Hendricks and the aunts/uncles/cousins over for a birthday party.  Since we went to church in the morning, Haleigh missed out on her morning nap and practically fell asleep while she was eating lunch. She took a quick nap that was cut short when Annaliese and Elias decided it was time to open presents and brought them in to her in her room!

After presents and dessert, Annaliese and Elias played together with Haleigh's new truck that Elias had picked out and Haleigh entertained herself while the rest of us played a few rounds of Taboo. (I think Mallory slept through most of this!)

 She found a cupcake wrapper and turned her back on us so we wouldn't catch her eating it!

Thank you to everyone for loving this little bear and for being a part of her life!

February Recap

Here are just a few of the pictures I've taken throughout the past month. It has been unseasonably warm so there has been quite a bit of playtime outside on the swingset which has been fun for Annaliese and Haleigh. Annaliese will play outside regardless of the temperature! She can tolerate much cooler temperatures than her mother:) 

Haleigh feeding herself her bottle

Enjoying the sunshine!

Future basketball star!

 Doing somersaults off the stool and onto the beanbag!

 The new room setup...seems to be working out quite well!

 Playing the guitar with her homemade pick (she cut a piece of construction paper, folded it up, and then taped it together so it wouldn't bend when she played!)

 Longingly looking outside

Haleigh keeping an eye on Annaliese and Elias

 Not quite sure what's going on here...but it looks like trouble!

Annaliese teaching Elias how to play their orchard game...she did a pretty good job explaining it! I was impressed! 

Spring is in the Air!

Yesterday was a beautiful day and since I didn't have to work, we decided to go for a little drive. It's been awhile since we've ventured out of Bellingham:) There are several local fields of daffodils and tulips and the daffodils are already in full bloom! We thought it might be fun to check out...we headed to a place called RoozenGaarde and we were not disappointed!

Tapping into our Dutch heritage with a picture by the windmill!

Practicing 'high-fives'

The best of my attempts to get them both looking in the same general direction

 Daffodils and Mt. Baker...not a bad view!

 Annaliese had a lot of energy; since it wasn't very busy and there were several large, green, grassy areas, we let her run all over the place. It was wonderful!

When we were done looking at the daffodils and soaking up the sunshine, we headed to Woods Coffee for a little afternoon snack. I decided that I wanted to do a puzzle once we were back home so we made a quick little stop at Grandpa and Grandma's house for a puzzle...and ended up staying for dinner! So fun that we can do that now!!

Enjoying her own hot chocolate!