Preschool

Maggie started preschool on August 20th.  I did a Mom's co-op preschool with both girls when they were 3, so this is her first time going to school outside of someone's house.  We refer to it as "4-year-old preschool" around here, because to these girls it is a much bigger deal than the regular preschool!  I hate paying the monthly bill, but Ella had a great experience there and Maggie has been so excited to follow in her sister's footsteps.  Maggie wanted her hair in curls for her first day, so we obliged and she was mighty excited with her special hairdo, new-to-her outfit, and new shoes.  She had a great first day and has been loving it ever since!

We are proud of how much she has grown in the past year or so.  There was a time when we were really concerned about our Maggie as she could be pretty stubborn, difficult, and a bit of a trouble maker.  I don't know what has happened in her little mind over the past bit, but she has turned into a sweet and kind little girl who really wants to please (unheard of from a year ago), but is still always ready to giggle, have fun, and be wild when the time is right.  She has been doing great in preschool so far and I am excited for her to have this new adventure!

First Grade

 First Day of First Grade!

Ella had her first day of first grade on August 6th.  She went to full day kindergarten here last year, so there was no adjustment in schedule, but she did seem to have a hard time getting back into the swing of things after a not long enough, fun summer.  She missed her old teacher and old classmates and was a bit uncomfortable in her new one.  However, after about a week she seemed to get over it and we have been problem/drama free for the most part ever since.  Whew!  Her teacher this year is Ms. Mary Kay and Ella seems to be learning a lot already.  She has come home a couple of days so excited to tell me the exciting news that Ms. Mary Kay told the whole class she loves them!  I think that is the sign of a good teacher and what will be a great year!

Swimming Can?

 

When we returned home from our trip to Utah we were thrilled to see that we had a recycling can delivered to our house!  (That's right, ABQ did not have recycling cans until then. . .)

Brad instructed me not to start filling it with our recyclables yet and asked that I give him a couple of days before I did.  Little did I know the fun he had in store for the girls. . .

 

 

Ella and Maggie loved it.  Hadley did NOT think it was very cool at all.  I'm sure it had something to do with the fact that she couldn't touch the bottom like her big sisters.  We can certainly always count on Brad to be "creative" with activities for the girls.

Boating

We had the chance to go boating twice while we were in Utah.  Brad's Uncle Ed and his fun family invited us to join them water skiing and then we were also able to spend some more time on the lake tubing and swimming with our friends, the Jackmans. 

When Brad got out of the boat to ski for the first time in years, I joked with him mentioning how embarrassing it would be if he couldn't get up in front of all of his younger cousins.  Well, after the first pull of the boat, he didn't get up, to which Ella turned to me and said, "Mom, you were right. . .Daddy is not going to get up!"  We all had a good laugh over that one, and sure enough Brad proved us wrong the next time around and got back into the hang of skiing.  He did sound like an old man though, whining about how sore he was for the next few days.  :) We let Ella and Maggie try waterskiing off the boom for the first time (to mixed reviews) and all of the girls just LOVED being on the boat even without getting in the water themselves!

We were then able to go boating with the Jackmans at Willard Bay, and spent our time with the more kid-friendly activities of tubing and swimming.  Maggie LOVED the tube and giggled with every bump, large or small (our little daredevil).   Ella enjoyed it too, but would let us know it was time to stop if things got a little too wild for her.  Hadley wanted NOTHING to do with it, and felt much safer riding in the boat with Mom!

 

 

 Thanks for the fun times everyone!  (Now Brad is dreaming of his own boat someday. . .)



Alpine Slide/Coaster

We spent a day in Park City with the Holbrook side of the family.  We went on a hike, played at a fun park and rode the Alpine Slide and Coaster.  It was so much fun for all of us!  Ella was super nervous at first (as she usually is with new things) but decided she loved it after and all of the girls wished we could go again and again!  Thanks for treating us to the fun adventure, Grandpa Holbrook!

 

 

 

Draper Grandkids

We planned to get an updated pic for my Mom of the grandkids on my side of the family at an evening picnic, but then the heavens opened and the rain came pouring down.  Since we knew it was the last time we would all be together for awhile, we used a plastic tablecloth so the kids weren't soaking wet and did the best we could with what we had!

 

We got a much happier Hadley when we tried a picture of just my girls after. . .

2

 

Where do I start with our favorite 2-year-old?  Hadley is such a fun member of our family, she is always the first to giggle and laugh, give hugs, and love us all.   She is playful, friendly, and energetic.  She loves being chased and tickled.  She has no problem with us leaving her for nursery, with a babysitter, etc, but she will run over with such excitement as soon as we come back.  She gets SO excited for everything and everyone--I can't tell you how many times a days she will just shout, "Yea!" for just about anything.  She is LOUD (both when she is happy and when she is upset). . .she will just constantly make noise at the dinner table or in the car especially, singing songs and being silly, making it almost impossible to hear a word from anyone else.  It's just constant chatter from this one.  The comment has been made a number of times that her scream when she is upset closely resembles the sound of a tea kettle--high pitched and all!
She is still our little peanut and looks about 6 months younger in size than her actual age (still barely over 20 lbs too).   I often do appreciate her small size though, as she is still so easy to carry--even while 7 months pregnant.  When I pick up other children her age and younger I just can't believe how heavy they are!  Her appetite has been growing in recent months so hopefully she will start catching up in the weight/height department soon.  She loves eating any kind of fruit, mac n cheese (of course), chicken nuggets, sugar snap peas, and cucumbers.  She still doesn't do the best job with grown-up dinners, but we are working on it! 
She doesn't have as much hair as either of her sisters did at this age, and it is still a very light blonde.  I do see some darker hair at the roots so I am thinking it will start getting closer in color to Maggie's as it grows more.  Her eyes are still a very bright blue, but I think they are starting to fade a bit now, just like her sisters' did.

We have started talking to her about being a "big girl" now, but she insists that she is still Mommy and Daddy's baby.  My other two were interested in the potty and things like that by this age, but Hadley would rather just be loved and snuggled as baby for now.  She is speaking in phrases, but totally mixing up the placement of her words, so I don't think you could say she is using sentences yet.  I love it and think it is so cute, it reminds me a lot of Yoda talking most of the time.  For example, if she wants to tell me that she is ready for breakfast and wants cereal what I usually will hear is something like, "Mommy, breakfast now cereal?" , or if she wants to know if Ella is coming home from school now she will ask, "Mommy,  Ella school home now?".  It sure is fun to figure out what she is trying to tell us (unless she starts to get frustrated). 

 

Hadley is just FUN, FUN, FUN!  She cries when we tell her it's nap time or bedtime and just begs us to play.  It is both good and bad that she shares a room with her sisters as the bedtime events seem to constantly get rowdier and rowdier between the 3 of them!  I think as she gets older, Ella and Maggie are going to have a hard time keeping up with her.  We love our Hadley Bear so much and are excited that she is 2!

 

 

Ella wanted a turn playing photographer at the end of our shoot, so I got in a pic too. . .