stand and clap

This sweet precious darling angel baby girl can now stand and clap.  Check it out:

Harper started standing on her own last week and she clapped her hands for the first time today.  This age is so much fun.  Nine month olds are so sweet and little, and they do the cutest things.  And the bonus is they can't talk back, disobey, get out of their beds, refuse to wear the clothes you put on them, hit their siblings, say potty words, or ask to play Wii forty-seven times a day.  Speaking of Liam and Hayden...

I love these kids, but they're kind of like kittens.  When you see a kitten you think,"oh my goodness, look how sweet and soft and tiny.  i want one!"  You don't realize that the cute little kitten will not stay that way.  In no time it morphs into a big, hairy cat that makes messes, annoys the fire out of you, and is incapable of following commands.  I speak from personal experience. 

As I read that back it sounds kind of harsh.  It's been one of those days.  I'm thankful for my kids.  Really.

Pinkalicious Tea Party

Hayden turned three today!  We celebrated this morning with a Pinkalicious Tea Party.  It was pinkerific!  Lots of pinktastic pictures.

the invitation

dressed to party

where's the food?

Pink, pink, pink!

these poms poms took every ounce of craftiness I could muster
thank you Martha Stewart

The menu:  raspberry sorbet with raspberries, pink wafer cookies,
 pink vanilla dipped strawberries and dipped marshmallows

love

tea time...or pink lemonade time

dramatic reading of Pinkalicious 

My favorite line, "You get what you get and you don't get upset!"

a little crafting

decorating pink crowns

Pinkalicious has a brother named Peter so the brothers at the party decorated Peter hats 

sweet Stella 

Stella, Evie and Hayden

Evie playing dress-up 

Pinkerific family

New clothes from Pops and Nana

gift from Momma Jo and Grandad - love the pajamas! 

Magnadoodle from Mommy and Daddy

Thanks Mom and Dad!

Sandwich set from Drew.  And Liam was trying to give her a picture he colored for her.  Sweet brother. 

Let's make cupcakes!

Pinkaboo

Pinkalicious

 Happy Birthday to Hayden

Drew - a fellow Pinkalicious fan

The girls had fun playing with princess paper dolls that Stella gave Hayden.

party favors

the boys wore their pink with pride

Pinkerbelle

Yay! We survived! 

3 years old!!

Thank you to Drew, Evie and Stella for celebrating Hayden's special day with her.  We dedicate our tea party today to Mimi who introduced us to Pinkalicious!  Thank you Mimi for your generous gifts and for always thinking of us!

big girl bed

Hayden moved up to a big girl bed this weekend!  She was super excited to be in a bed like Bubba's.  She had been complaining that her covers were falling of her in her toddler bed.  When she started waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me so, I decided she needed an upgrade.

Having a "sleepover"

Liam and Hayden sleep in twin beds that used to be Will and his brother's.  Hayden looks so cute tucked in that big bed.  She will be 3 years old this week! My sweet middle child.  Most of the time she's scared to try new things but wants to do everything her brother does.  Tonight Liam cheered her on as she cleaned his whole room.  Bless her heart.

September 2011

November 2011

She has a deep love for shoes, juice, mac-n-cheese, lip gloss, and her mom.  She's a pleaser, helper and whiner.  She cries everyday when she doesn't get more juice and complains everyday that her underwear bothers her.

A little lip gloss
April 2011

Queen of taking her time
May 2011

She's very sensitive and intuitive.  Yesterday she peed on the floor in her room.  When I found it an hour or so later I was NOT happy.  I was storming around the house to get paper towels to clean it up.  She looks up at me with her giant brown eyes and says, "Mommy are you mad?"  She does that all the time!!  And the answer is "YES!  I am mad.  Quit peeing on the dang carpet!"  But instead I  said through clenched teeth, "Mommy is not happy with you right now."  And right away she said, "I'm sorry Mommy."  And then came the waves of guilt for being angry over a little pee on the carpet.  

Killer brown eyes
June 2011

Hayden and Harper
July 2011

She's still working on her big sister skill with Harper.  She loves her, but is surprisingly too rough with her.  She's starting to get frustrated with Harper for picking up her toys or crawling into her space.  Let the games begin.


Hayden talks alot but can be hard to understand.  She struggles with consonants - mixes them up or just doesn't say them.  Example:  "mommy can I have a gink and a gack."  would be her asking for a drink and a snack.  We had her speech evaluated last month.  The speech therapist said that she is above average in her vocabulary but barely in the average range for annunciation.  She said we shouldn't worry too much yet but suggested trying to pick key words to work on especially when she's asking for things.  Already in the past month we've noticed her annunciating more.

August 2011

Right now she's into coloring, doing puzzles, and reading Pinkalicious over and over and over.  She loves to run errands and go shopping so most of the time she's my little sidekick.  Love my Hayden Alisa.  We are planning to have a little birthday celebration this week.  I asked her who she wanted to invite.  She thought about it and said "Liam."  More to come... 

November 2011

Update on Captain America:  He was discovered under the couch.  Spared the misfortune of Harper's diaper.

A Minnesota Christmas

Truly sometimes I still think, "I can't believe we live in Minnesota."  We celebrated our third Minnesota Christmas this year.  Time flies...sorta.  

 We actually did not have a white Christmas this year!  We've barely had snow so far this winter.  These are pics from a dusting we got in early December that melted off shortly after.

I can't believe Hayden fits in this snowsuit.  We bought this for Liam our first winter here. 

 Our tree.  We went fake this year.  No regrets.

 Liam and Dad after Liam's pre-school Christmas program.  He was the best one.  And I'm not prejudice.  

pretty girl 

 another pretty girl

 Visit to Santa.  Liam asked for a Spiderman Squinkie dispenser.  Hayden asked for dolls like Ruby.  She was so brave.  And if there's a Santa, this dude is it.

 tiny baby Jesus

 Sisters exchanging gifts on Christmas Eve - Hayden gave Harper bath toys and Harper gave Hayden Pinkalicious dress-up shoes

 Pops and Nana were here!! Liam had just opened his gift from Harper - super hero cape and mask.  He liked it.  :)  This picture was taken right before we left for our Christmas Eve service at church.  Let's just say Liam and candlelight services are not the best combo.   

 Decorating cookies for Santa

 Hayden and Nana

 Hanging stockings

 Christmas morning

 Santa pulled through

Baby's first Christmas

 Harper's first stocking

 the girls

 Stockings for the grown-ups

 Kinda crazy that we are the Mom and Dad at Christmas now.  If I could choose between being the Mom or being the kid at Christmas I would choose.... I don't know...the kids have it pretty stinkin' good...ok fine... the Mom.  

 Harper's big gift from Santa

post Christmas tea party - thanks Mimi (Will's grandmother) for the tea set!

This was the year of electronics at our house.  My parents gave us a Wii, and Will's parents gave Liam a Leapster.  I should have saved my money.  Liam thought the bucket of Legos we got him was totally lame.  He was, however, totally stoked about the Angry Birds t-shirt we gave him.  What is it with Angry Birds?  Hayden's favorite gift was this little Hello Kitty bag with a necklace and two lip glosses that Will's parents gave her. She didn't like at all the totally awesome leg warmers I got her.  :(  But the Big Sister Dora doll we gave her was a hit.  I got some leg warmers for Harper and she rocks them.  

It really was a great Christmas.  My top 3 favorite moments:

We celebrated advent as a family and I love those quiet moments of family time - talking, singing and reading scripture.  

The kids and I made treats for our Bible class teachers and pre-school teachers, and I love the excitement on the kids' faces when they get to give someone else a gift.  

And I love sitting back on Christmas morning and just taking it all in - the fruits of my labor!  Totally worth all the work and preparation.   

And this was the picture that was on our Christmas card that never got sent out.  Oops!  Merry Christmas from the Copeland family!!