Hayden's First Christmas

We spent Christmas day with my family. First, we woke up at our house to see all the goodies Santa left for Hayden. He must have been really good this year! Then we went to Gramma's and Grampa's house, where Santa left a few more packages for Hayden. After we opened presents, we got lunch ready and the whole family came over. Hayden got to see Gramma, Grampa, Uncle Eric, Grandma Jean, Grandpa Elwood, and lots of cousins and great aunts and uncles. After playing all afternoon (and thankfully getting a nap in), we went to Uncle Billy's and Aunt Margi's house for our traditional homemade pizza dinner before going to the movies. We saw "Night at the Museum" . . . Hayden's second movie. Luckily he slept through most of it :-)
Hayden looking like a big boy in his "Thomas the Tank Engine" chair
Checking out his new "Learning Home"
Hey guys - Do you like my new shoes!? I should grow into them soon!
Mommy's and Daddy's best Christmas gift ever . . . Hayden and his sweet smile!

Christmas in Vilonia

Hayden with Uncle Joey
We spent last weekend in Vilonia and celebrated Christmas with Michael's family on the 23rd. Hayden got to see Nanny and PawPaw, Uncle Joey, cousins Cody and Summer, Great-Granny Paul and Great-Granny Shumate, and several great aunts and uncles. Hayden had lots of fun opening presents and really enjoyed trying to eat the paper! We had a great weekend!
Hayden checking out his new toys
Great-Granny Paul and Hayden
Opening a present - The bag's bigger than he is!


More Christmas pictures to come . . .

Merry Christmas!

Here are just a few pictures we took of Hayden sitting by our Christmas tree. Of course, Cooper had to get in on the action. He misses getting his picture taken, so he likes to jump in whenever we snap a picture of Hayden. We hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Last night, we went downtown to the Winter Wonderland. It is an amazing place filled with about 20 different Christmas scenes, full of lights, music, and characters. Our friend, Donna Chetister, worked on the Wonderland for years, adding a little more every year to bring smiles to all the kids' faces. She recently passed away, but her memory will live on in all of her works of art throughout northeast Arkansas, especially the Winter Wonderland. Hayden loved all of it, and he was especially captivated by the singing and dancing snowmen, the spinning penguins, and the train. There was so much to see and hear!
Hayden and Daddy watch the penguins spin and play!
Hayden wouldn't look at the camera . . . he was too into the lights and sounds!


We got to see Santa again. This time Hayden wasn't too sure about him.

Christmas Parade

Last Saturday, we took Hayden to Grubbs to watch the Christmas parade. Grubbs is a small town where my parents grew up. My grandpa, who still lives there, was the Grand Marshall for the parade, so he and my parents got to ride on the opening float. Hayden enjoyed watching Gramma, Grampa, and Great-Grandpa Elwood go by and wave at him!
Hayden's getting bundled up to go outside and watch the parade!
Santa's sleigh looked a lot like a big, red fire truck!

Santa!

Hayden hanging out with the Girls

Sunday night our church Life Group had a Christmas party. We even got a visit from Santa! All the kids were so excited and didn't want him to leave. It was Hayden's second time to see Santa. Here are some pics from the party. As you may notice, Hayden is surrounded by girls in our Life Group. There are two other boys and tons of girls. But, we also have 3 ladies expecting baby boys (one with twins!), so it won't be long until Hayden has some boys to play with.




Playing ball with Lauren

SANTA!!!!

Rubber Ducks . . . YUM!!

Six Exciting Years

On Saturday, Michael and I celebrated our sixth anniversary. We were reminiscing about our wedding and remembering how sick Michael was on that day. Our vows did say "in sickness and in health," I just didn't think it would start that soon! :-) Anyway, our wedding day seemed like it was just yesterday, and now it's six years down the road! And what a wonderful six years it has been!

Michael and I enjoyed a date on our anniversary. Gramma and Grampa kept Hayden so we could go out. We went to dinner and then to the movies to see "The Holiday." (Great movie by the way!) We had a lot of fun!

Seven Months Old

Today Hayden is seven months old! If you can't tell from these pictures, he wants to reach for and grab everything! We put a little Chrsitmas tree in his room, so I tried to take a picture of him sitting by it. It took several tries, because he was so into grabbing it! I gave up on trying to get him to look at the camera. . . the tree was too enticing! So far he's not as amused with our big Christmas tree. I guess this one's just the right size to get his hands on!
Below is Hayden's monthly picture in his chair. He was trying to reach for the me or the camera in this one. I am amazed how quickly these 7 months with Hayden have gone. It's so weird to think that he's closer to being one than being a newborn. No wonder people always say "They grow up so fast!" Now I understand. These past 7 months have been the happiest for our new little family and I look forward to many more to come! We go back for the 2nd half of the flu vaccine tomorrow, so hopefully we can see how much Hayden now weighs. I'm not sure that I shared his stats after his six month checkup, but he weighed 15.15 (25th%) and was 25 1/2 inches long (25%). I bet he's around 17 pounds now, but we'll see!

Thanksgiving

Hayden had a big time on Thanksgiving! He was passed around by lots of family and loved it. We spent Thursday with my family . . . my parents, Eric, aunts and uncles, cousins, and grandparents. We had a big feast at noon and had to keep with tradition and go to Pizza Hut on Thanksgiving night. We also went to the movies, Hayden's first, to see "Deck the Halls." Hayden did pretty well, but got a little fussy, since it was his bedtime. Thanks to Grampa, who walked Hayden around, Mom and Dad got to enjoy the movie!
On Friday, we went to visit Michael's family. Hayden enjoyed some more time with Nanny and PawPaw and also got to see his great-grandma and Uncle Joey. We did a little shopping on Saturday in Conway, and Hayden was great. He loves riding in his stroller, so he is a great shopper as long as he can see what's going on.



Hayden also got a visit from Julie, who hadn't seen him since he was about 2 months old. He got to show off his new teeth, his sitting up, and his cute little laugh. Needless to say, Hayden had a busy and exciting first Thanksgiving!

Hayden's first Halloween

Hayden was the cutest little monkey for Halloween last week! He did great in his costume . . . it didn't seem to bother him at all! On Saturday night we went to a friend's Halloween party, then Hayden got dressed up again on Halloween to go to our church's Fall Festival. We had lots of fun! The first pic is of Hayden with Mickey and Minnie Mouse at the Halloween party. By the way, Hayden turned 6 months 2 days before Halloween, so I posted his 6 month picture in his chair along with this post. The next pic was taken before Hayden's big Halloween night. The last two were taken at the Fall Festival.

All Smiles!

Here are a few pics of Hayden's big gummy smile. It won't be gummy for long, because Hayden's already getting 2 teeth! Just last week we felt the first one, and now you can feel and see both of the front 2 bottom teeth coming in! WOW! That was our exciting news for this week. The top pics were taken on his 5 month b-day (2 weeks ago). I got him laughing good for one of them. We are having a blast with the little guy!

Beach Baby

Here are some pics of our "Beach Baby." Hayden enjoyed his first trip to the beach last week. We went with Gramma and Grampa. Uncle Eric even got to take a break and come from Tuscaloosa to spend a few days in Destin with us. Although we pretty much kept Hayden under the umbrella most of the time, we did get him out in the ocean for a little while one day when the water was calm and clear. He really liked it, probably because the water was warmer than the pool! The waves were rough the last few days, but Hayden got to dig his feet in the sand and watch the water from the shore. Oh, to be back at the beach . . .

1st Dip in the Pool

Once we got to Destin, we let Hayden try out the pool. We figured he would love it since he loves his baths, but the condo's pool was freezing! He wasn't too sure about getting in the water!

It's a Zoo!

Hayden had his first trip to the zoo while we were in Florida on vacation. As you can see he got to feed some of the animals. He even had time to pose for a picture as a butterfly. The weather was great and the zoo was a lot of fun. Hayden got to ride a train and see a zebra, gorillas, camels, and even a rhino.

ASU Fan

Hayden enjoyed his first ASU game on September 2nd! He loved all the sights and sounds of the game. The noise didn't bother him a bit. In fact, he took a short nap during the middle of it all! Here he is sporting his new Arkansas State t-shirt . . . it looks like he may be an A-State fan. I guess it's about time since he's already danced to Rocky Top and tried to "Roll Tide!"