Hadley's Birthday

We had a fun day celebrating Hadley and her first birthday.

We made her zucchini bread and mangoes for breakfast (our best guess of her favorites).

The girls decided that what Hads would like to do the most on her birthday is go swimming,

and although that request was pretty self-serving I would also say that that is one of Hads' favorite things to do. Our friends the Wappetts offered to come along with us and we enjoyed the beautiful sunny day at the pool. After that we had a Dr. appt for both Hads and Ella and the poor girl had to get shots on her birthday. We got Panda for dinner since it was the best thing I could think of that Hads likes

 and I didn't feel like fixing dinner and making a cake after running around all day.

Once Daddy got home from work we did presents and cake. It's pretty hard to come up with presents for the first birthday of our 3rd girl, but I came across a playhouse at a yard sale a few weeks back for $20 so I figured that fit the bill nicely. Ella picked out a play tunnel for Hads and Maggie got her a new straw sippy cup. Hadley seemed equally excited about all of her presents.

We then treated her to strawberry shortcake for her birthday cake, which Hads was thrilled with (especially the whipped cream), she actually licked the plate--no lie! It was fun celebrating with her on her special day.

ONE-YEAR-OLD

                   

  

I put way too many pictures on this post, but I just couldn't get rid of any. . .I like so many of these faces of her all for different reasons!

I can't believe she is ONE already!  This past year has gone by so incredibly fast and I have enjoyed being a mom to this little one.  She is such a different baby now than the one I brought home from the hospital, but we love her all the same.  She is definitely in a yelling stage right now--not necessarily yelling because she is upset, but yelling for attention, yelling because she wants something, yelling because she doesn't want something. . .you get the idea.  She is all over the place, not walking yet (later than the her big sisters), but definitely enjoying walking with her walker, which I think is her favorite toy. For some reason she is very into her tongue right now and sticks it out constantly as she moves about the house.   She LOVES to "hide" from us and giggles like crazy when we say "Where's Hadley", she then gets so excited to pull off the blanket and surprise us all.  In fact, when I took her to the park last night to take her pictures, I couldn't get her to interact with me much or smile at me as she was too intersted in watching the little league football practice that was going on down the hill.  The thought finally dawned on me to give her the blanket and let her play this favorite game and I was able to capture these pics of her hiding from and surprising Mommy.  Even though they are not your typical pictures, I love the way they turned out and hope they will remind me later of the fun she had with us while she was so little. 

She is very friendly and loves waving and pointing at other people.  She will flash them a big smile and then bury her head against my shoulder as if she is shy--I just love it!  We think she is such a super-cute baby, even though she has a bit of a goofy smile with her snaggle-teeth.  We rarely hear a peep out of her through the night, but she is up bright and early at about 6:30 most mornings.  She loves her fruit and will go absolutely crazy over watermelon, grapes, or mangoes (I think mangoes are her favorite).  I've had to start hiding the fruit at dinnertime until after she has eaten something else, otherwise she will throw whatever else she has off of her tray and yell and yell for what she really wants.  Other than fruit, she doesn't seem to have too many other favorites right now, but seems to like rice a lot.
She is a little peanut--not quite 17 lbs yet (only in the 1st percentile for her age), the doctors have officially said I need to start throwing some butter and heavy whipping cream in her meals. It also make me nervous to wean her completely wish I would like to start doing because she has always refused to take any kind of milk/formula from a bottle or sippy cup. . .so we'll just have to see how that goes.

She is saying Momma and Dadda (but not necessarily for the right people) and says "uh-oh" all of the time as well.  We're working on more signs with her so she will use that communication a little more than the yell which seems to be her favorite.  She loves her big sisters, but we are STILL working with them on giving her her own space and not carrying her around everywhere they go and putting her up on beds, couches, etc.  She loves her Momma and lucky for her I am always around and she rarely has to go without me.  I think she has realized that Daddy is the fun one though and seems to save her best giggles for him.

 

 

                      

 She is always pointing to show us wherever she wants to go. . .

 

Stay little Hadley, we LOVE you, but you are growing up WAY too fast!

Zoo Concert

We made it to a zoo concert this past weekend.  Brad had to work a bit later than we had planned that night so my friend Kellie and I took our kids earlier and saved a spot and ate our picnic dinners with our kids.  Brad was able to meet us later once he was off.  The girls insisted on wearing dresses so they could dance the night away (apparently you can only dance in dressses).  The big girls were especially thrilled when Brad took them up to the dance floor, leaving Kellie and I with just the babies to sit and chat for the rest of the concert (a rare treat).  I think this has become one of our favorite summertime activities to do here in ABQ.

GGYR

There is this awesome little ranch here (Galloping Grace Youth Ranch) that is a non-profit with it's aim to provide city kids with a feel for what life is like on a ranch.  It is totally free and you can sign your kids up to go and visit.  They spend their time learning about and interacting with farm animals, doing ranch chores like grooming the horses and scooping poop, and they also get the chance to ride the horses as well.  Ella had requested we do this for her birthday this year, but I couldn't get her a spot and we were just on the waiting list.  Since she was so disappointed we planned the little birthday party for her instead.  Lucky for us though, about a week ago I got an email stating that a spot had opened up for us and we were able to go visit after all.  The girls LOVED it and have already asked when we can go again!

                                            Sitting on hay bales and listening to the rules

 Hads spent her time swinging in the swing, until she was ready for a nap and she absolutely lost it, but wouldn't go to sleep!  Luckily for me, my parents were still there so my mom took her for a drive in the car so she could get a nap and allowed the rest of us to still have fun.

                                                               Grooming "Tootsie"

                                                            Holding the baby ducks

 Ella on her horse, "Freckles"

 Maggie on her horse, "Joe"---she was a little nervous here when she first climbed on, but warmed up to it pretty quick



We will definitely try and get the girls back for another visit!

G & G Draper Visit

We just enjoyed a long weekend with Grandma and Grandpa Draper in town.  We filled our time with a drive up to Sandia Crest, a visit to the Farmer's Market, swimming, Ella's birthday celebrations, going to see Brave, a horse ranch (more to come on that), and lots of games and stories with Grandma and Grandpa.  The girls loved having the extra attention (except for Hads who was SO nervous I would leave her--especially the first few days) and are looking forward to heading up to Utah in a few weeks to visit some more!

These pics were taken at Sandia Crest on a cold and cloudy morning. . .(only cold because we were 10,000 feet up--rest assured it was plenty warm once we got back down to the valley!)