Happy Birthday!!

Today is Hayden's 3rd Birthday! She has been waiting for this day for many months now. For the past few months any time she saw something she wanted she'd say "maybe for my birthday party." I've heard this every day, usually multiple times a day. She cracks me up. Here are a few pictures that have brought us to this milestone....

Hayden's Birth Day-

Her 1st Birthday-

Her 2nd Birthday-

Her 3rd Birthday-

We aren't actually having her party until Saturday. But she got to choose her birthday breakfast. Which was "regular pancakes." (as opposed to egg pancakes or hootenanies) Cole got to share in the birthday breakfast with his first sampling of pancakes.

We let her open her present from us before Ryan headed off to work. She was very excited and has already had a tea party this morning, complete with Cheerios.

Here are a few things about her at this age-
She loves nursery and is very eager to go each week. It amazes me how much she actually learns there. Every Sunday she'll tell me what her lesson was about. About the picture- She had some milk that she spilled and was playing with. I told he we don't play with milk and she needed to clean it up. Then she said "but Mom, I made a Temple." I stopped and looked and it really does resemble a temple. How can you be mad about that ;)

She loves to ride her bike! I got her a bike at a yard sale last month and she is always asking to ride it now. And she's actually really good at it. She loves to be outside and loves to get together with friends. She's very social.

She is a Daddy's girl most of the time. She loves building tents with him. She runs out to meet him every day when he gets home from work! She also loves being a big sister, aside from getting her hair pulled. She loves to kiss, hug and hold Cole. She is a very loving little girl. She doesn't usually like to cuddle but she gives great hugs and kisses.

She is silly! She loves to laugh and loves to make other people laugh. This face is often seen around our house. However, she can also have a major attitude! For example, a few months ago she was getting something out of a drawer in the kitchen. I opened the fridge and accidentally bumped her. Full of attitude she said, "Excuse me. I'm trying to do something here!" Also, we just taught her her full name. If we call her a princess or baby girl or something like that, she'll say "No, I'm Hayden Karen Woodland." So many of her replies are just laced with attitude! Oh boy. We're in for it ;)

She has a lot of energy and is a little performer. She likes to to gymnastics and loves for me to take her picture while she does. She does flips off the couch, somersaults, jumps off of everything, etc, etc.....

One of her favorite thing to do it DANCE! We had her in a dance class last year, which she loved. We are going to sign her up again soon because it's so fun to watch her. Every time we go to 6 Flags we have to see the Wiggles Show. And everytime she's up front dancing right along with them! I love it. I think she has a future career as a Wiggles dancer.

That's just a little bit about our Haydie Babe. She makes us so happy!

Happy Birthday Hayden!! We love you!

Silly Smiler

Cole's been so busy in the last couple of weeks. He's developed this super silly smile. He scrunches his nose and squints his eyes. It makes me laugh every time.

He has been crawling on his knees a lot more and loves to climb through the barstools and under the kitchen chairs and table. A lot of times he'll get stuck half way through and gets really mad.

I've learned not to leave the applesauce within his reach. Should have already known that one ;)

He's been dressed up like a little man and had a photo shoot with Hayden.

I'm heading out in a few minutes to take him to the doctor. He's been miserable. I'm crossing my fingers it isn't his 7th ear infection of the year. While I hate for him to be sick, I've been taking advantage of the cuddle time while he's been sick. It's the only time he'll really hold still long enough.

Love you Cole Bear!

9 Months!!

Last Friday Cole turned 9 months old! I say this all the time, but I really can't believe how fast they grow up. We are loving 9 months though. It's such a fun age.
His stats at his appointment on Monday were
weight- 19 lbs 1 oz- 25%
height-29 1/4 in- 85 %
He's definitely tall and skinny. The doctor said he looks great and is all healthy. That's what we like to hear :)

Here are a few things Cole's been up to.....

He is a talker. He says Dada, Mama (usually when he's sad and wants me to pick him up), ahhh, and a bunch of other not so defined noises.

Sticking out his tongue. He can be seen doing this randomly throughout the day.
He loves to crawl behind the couch and hide. Until he gets mad because he can't find his way out ;)

He feeds himself cheerios or fruit puffs. He eats a lot and is great at it. He eats four meals of baby food and formula throughout the day. He tried some avocado last night. He ate it but wasn't too sure if he liked it. He's also tried mashed potatoes, cupcake, yogurt and bread.

He's such a fun loving boy. He loves to play and especially loves laughing. He's super ticklish and has the most contagious smile and laugh. He also claps a lot. Usually if someone says "Yay" that's his cue to start clapping. He adores Hayden and loves to play with her. When he does get mad, he balls up his hands into fists and shakes as he lets out an ornery yell. It cracks me up.

He got 2 teeth at 7 months. You can kind of see them on the bottom there. They are so cute and I love watching him chomp with them.

He loves to bounce! Whether in his exersaucer or just while you hold him. He has always been a bouncer. It's hilarious because he can get some real air in the saucer. He's super squirmy too. People often comment on how wiggly he is.

He loves bath time and gets a kick out of splashing. He has also been crawling for about a month now. He just does the inch worm/army crawl thing but he is pretty fast. He gets into trouble now. Hayden doesn't love that he can crawl because now he loves to get into her toys. She's not a big fan of sharing with him. He has been sleeping through the night for about 6 weeks. Which is so nice!! However, he has been waking up between 5 and 6 every morning with a stinky diaper for the last 2 weeks. Some mornings he'll go back to sleep after his diaper change but sometimes we're up for the day. We'll have to keep working on that.....

Overall he is a great baby, super easy going and he brings so much love and happiness into our home. We can't get enough of our Cole bear.

The Wedding

Wow, sorry about the post and picture overload!! Just trying to get caught up.

One of the main reasons we went to Utah was for the wedding of Ryan's sister Camille. She and Eric were married in the Salt Lake Temple.

All of the girls got fancy purple dresses and the boys got purple ties. Of course my kids started out the day not wanting to be in any pictures. Not so good when we're heading to a wedding.

Cole was so handsome in his tie. This is their little cousin Adryan. Cole is just 10 days older. This was their first meeting. Hopefully they'll be good little buddies!

All of the nieces and nephews with great grandma Woodland waiting for Eric and Camille to come out of the temple.

The happy couple. Her dress is so gorgeous!

Hayden loved getting attention from everyone. Here she is with Grandpa Woodland.

During the reception, there was a program. Some people spoke and 2 of our nieces did a musical number. After each person, Hayden said "my turn". When the program was over, we unplugged the mic and let her sing. She was in heaven.

She ended the night with a dance with Daddy. So sweet....

We headed home to Illinois the next morning. It was a great trip but it was nice to be home. The following weekend we headed to Indianapolis. Camille and Eric live there and had a second reception.

Hayden and Cole enjoyed more time with family. Here's Hayden with Grandma Woodland.

It was definitely a busy month and we're just now getting back into our routine. It's always great to be with family, though.

Tulip Festival and Hoogle Zoo

We had to go to Thanksgiving point for the Tulip festival. It is one of my favorite things. I'm so glad it was going on while we were there. It's so gorgeous!
Hayden loves to go anywhere that passes out maps. Grammy was able to come with us and we had a lot of fun. We went to BYU the day before and loaded up on our BYU gear. Hence the kids' hats! So cute...

We also hit Hoogle Zoo while we were there. We were able to go with my sister-in-law Linda and some cousins. I always love the zoo.

Cole got to go on his first carousel ride but didn't seem too impressed.

We were lucky to do so many fun things during our trip. We were busy busy busy but really loved being with family!

Family fun in Salt Lake

The kids and I were in Utah for 3 weeks. Ryan came out 10 days after us. It was a great chance to reconnect with family.
We went with my brother Sean's family to Wheeler farm. Hayden loved feeding the birds!

Cole liked watching the horses. I've never been there before. It was a lot of fun.

Another day 3 of my brothers and their families met us at the park for a picnic and playing. Hayden immediately took to Uncle Darin and spent most of the time playing with him.

Another night we had dinner at my brother Aaron's house. Hayden loved dressing up with Makayla and Ivy. Ivy really wanted to be the "handsome guy". So cute. Tavis was excited to play too.

This is Cole's first experience with grass. Didn't love it!

World's Greatest Teacher (and Dad/Grampa)

This is my Dad. He has been a teacher forever, and he's a great one! He had double knee replacement surgery a few weeks ago so his kids through him a party before he left. We were lucky enough to be in Utah and able to go to celebrate. The theme was obviously a luau.


My dad is not a fan of being the center of attention, but he was a great sport. He even kept the shells on... long enough for a picture. Then they were GONE.

They made him try to guess which student was who while he was blindfolded. It didn't work so well...

This was the fancy gift they picked out for him- a shell toilet seat. Gotta love 6th graders ;)
Cole and Hayden had a great time with the leis and balloons. Hayden was too busy for any picture taking.

I'm so glad we got to be there to celebrate my Dad! He really is the greatest and should be celebrated more often!

*Hopefully he doesn't kill me for posting these pictures....