We went shopping for swimsuits a few weekends ago. As we started looking through the rack together you looked up at me and said “Daddy, I want one that doesn’t cover too much skin”. Lord help me! This is only the beginning and I can’t say I’m looking forward to the many, many more moments like these yet to come.

First, it again has been way too long since we posted for you.  Sorry!  We’re going to try to get better at more frequent short posts.

Your little brother is going to be 2 next month.  You guys adore each other.  Where ever you are, Brady is right behind you.  You guys have your brother sister moments, but you two really do adore each other.

You are reading!  We bought you the full series “Bob” books.  You’re on book 5 of set 1 right now and learning a new book every week.  It’s really amazing to watch you sound out your words.

Mommy and daddy started teaching you what little Spanish we knew or could find online.  Preschool has a bilingual teacher and began teaching you Spanish.  You surpassed mom and dad in about 5 weeks.  You come home singing full songs in Spanish and we have no idea what your singing.  You know all of your primary colors, days of the week, several animals, you can count to 10, and some other miscellaneous words.

You’re going to start kindergarten this fall.  There’s a brand new, state of the art School opening about 8 miles from the house.  We applied for a transfer and you were accepted!  The time is going so, so fast.  Everyone told us it would happen.  It’s something you just don’t understand until it happens.

Love you monkey.

Your mom and I knew this dad would come, we just didn’t expect it so soon, and so, so suddenly.  This saturday out of the blue “Why Daddy” and “Why Mommy” started.

Eat your green beans…  “Why Daddy” …because they are good for you… “Why Daddy”
Get in the car… “Why Daddy”  …because we are going to the store… “Why Daddy”
I have to let Maddie outsite “Why Daddy”  …because she has to go potty…  “Why Daddy”

“Why Daddy”, “Why Daddy”, “Why Daddy”  ALL day Saturday.  Never before this day had you asked.  It’s now Wednesday and it has continued all week.  Looks like this is going to be a trend for a while.

Where did you learn this?  and “Why Hailey”

Love you Monkey!

You are officially in your big girl room!  We moved your stuff over and had your furniture delivered a few weeks ago (12/3)…and you’ve been sleeping in your big girl bed ever since.  You done a great job with the transition to your new room and bed.  You love the freedom of your twin size bed but don’t take too much advantage of it.  For the most part you stay in bed from the time we put you down til the time you wake up!

It’s hard to believe how fast you are growing up!  You are speaking in full, grown up sentences.  You are so vivacious and full of life.  You are rather stubborn and opinionated though – not sure where you get that from?!  Your father, I am guessing.  🙂

You are excited about Christmas but you’re not a huge fan of Santa Clause.  We’ve tried twice now to get you in his lap but you will have no part of it.  We are trying to decide if we should force you into it and get one of those infamous screaming kid pictures or just leave it be for this year?!  We went to Interlochen and looked at Xmas lights last night and you loved it!  You were asking to see more and more lights!  We’ll have to do it again before the season is over…maybe when we are in Iowa next week!

Grandpa and Abby asked if you could spend the night with them on Thanksgiving.  Knowing you’d probably outgrown a pack ‘n play and that we’d need a solution for our visit to Luli & Papaw’s house later in the week, we decided to invest in a blow up big girl bed!  Your first night in the new bed was Wednesday and it’s safe to say things didn’t go just great.  You woke up many times and called for me or your daddy each time.  But you did much better Thursday at Grandpa and Abby’s – only woke up once!  You did pretty good in your bed at Luli & Papaw’s house and tonight we are trying you on an actual twin size matttress on your bedroom floor.

We are well on our way to getting you 100% converted to a big girl bed…which is good news considering your new bedroom set is scheduled to arrive on Saturday!  We ended up getting you a 4 post bed, nightstand, dresser w/mirror, and an armoire from Haverty’s a few weeks back.  We delayed the delivery knowing your new room would not be quite ready for you to move into for a few more weeks.

This is all just one more sign of how fast you are growing up….TOO FAST!  🙁

Our sweet, sweet Maddie is 8 ½ years old. Knowing that we always want to own pets (dogs) we decided it would be a good time to get a new dog acclimated and potty trained so that it would be all settled into our home by the time the new baby arrives. We applied for a Mastiff puppy through a rescue group but the puppies went fast to other homes. Realizing that wasn’t meant to be, we began researching other breeds and Greandma Karen mentioned the “Teddy Bear” puppies. LONG story short….we ended up with not one, but TWO new puppies!

Tucker is a mix between a Shihtzu & Bichon Frise and Bandit is a mix between a Shihtzu and a Coton de Tulear. Both are absolutely adorable and super lovable! Tucker is weighing in at a whopping 2.5 lbs and Bandit almost doubles him at 4.6 lbs! It’s quite the drastic change from our 175 pound Maddison! You have already been such a big helper with the puppies — it only proves what we already knew to be true…you are gonna be a GREAT big sister!

So we are currently a household of 3 ½ people and 3 dogs! Are we crazy or what!?

Brother!!!!  We just left the Dr’s office for mommy’s 16 week check-up.  While your little sibling wasn’t fully cooperative we’re 95% sure it’s your brother!  Mommy and daddy are very excited!

When daddy went to get you from you bed after nap today you were clearly still interested in laying around.  So daddy told you to let him know when you were ready to get out of bed.  To that, you proceeded to grab the end of the bed, throw your leg over the railing, and lower yourself down onto the floor!  I was in the other room but you came in shouting “I got out of bed”….shortly after your dad explained that you meant that quite literally.  So, we put you back in bed and asked you to do it again.  And you did.

I guess you could say this is officially the end of an era…the era where mommy and daddy are in control of your whereabouts at all times.

We had a super fun weekend!  We met Michelle, Kevin, and Charlotte at the pumpkin patch Saturday morning.  We got to feed the goats, see a pig race, go on a hay ride, and pet lots of way cool animals–cows, horses, chickens, bunnies, sheep, and guinea pigs!  You had a fantastic time and we all went for lunch afterwards.  We realized that this time next year, our table of six would be a table of 8 given that Michelle & I will both have our babies around the same time in 2012!

After your nap we dressed you in your Halloween costume – a cute little witch – and met up with Kim & Catrina at their church’s Trunk or Treat event.  You were VERY intimidated by the holding of the bag and saying trick or treat part.  Towards the end you were finally getting the hang of it though.

Then today we carved pumpkins!  Mommy did one and Daddy did two.  You found that interesting for about the first 10 minutes….then you started getting a little bored.  Oh, and then daddy cooked bloody fingers for your dinner….hot dogs with pasta noodles hanging out the end of them with lots of ketchup.  Needless to say it was an action packed weekend!