So Dan has ditched me yet again. I swear he has a conference every month. It was the first time we dropped him off at the airport and Hayden didn't cry. He just kept saying " I wanna go to grandpa's house." I was sad, I always do miss my hubby. But I have to look at the positives, with no hubby around I don't have to cook real meals and I don't have to pretend to get ready everyday. :)

my little digital camera is really not great at focusing, but here are so fun ones for you mom. Oh wait did I forget to mention that my family ditched me too!!! Yeah they are all up at a family reunion in the mountains some where getting eaten alive by skittos! Yes, I am a tad bit jealous, but camping + 2 wild kids + prego - hubby= craziness for mom, not to mention the cost of flying out. I will try and make another trip before miss Hadley has to pay for a ticket but no plans as of now. But mom here are some pics for when you are re cooperating from your trip. They have a little story time and craft at the mall a few times a month. The kids just go wild with there buddies running around. They always have free face painting and the last couple times we haven't gotten it done (thankfully my son does not like standing in long lines) but it was a short line and Hayden loved his pirate. Hadley does not like to be bossed so she will not sit and get anything painted.

Dancing at story time. I felt like my kids were a little out of control this week. But they had awesome naps when we got home.

This is Hayden's "no babies allowed"shirt. Yes, according to Hayden "I getting big mom, Hadley getting baby." Check out this kids hair! It has grown in so straight! Much less wild than last year. This hair do has had some assistance with a little gel and hair spray.

Trying so hard to get everyone to look, but Hadley does not like the flash.

Hayden has taken up an interest in robots. Maybe more of an obsession, by the looks of that face? Oh he looks just like his dad and uncles when they where little.

Proof that Hadley is getting a little hair. It's outta control most of the time.

Playing ice cream play dough and Hayden has to make a road. Hadley tried like 20 times to eat the play dough ice cream cone and every time would say "Yucky"

Sunday morning fun

Chillaxin

Was that a blonde Tom Cruise?

Hadley at 18 months

She made it! 18 months, crazy, but not really. This girl has made my life awesome. She is miss sunshine. Wakes up with a smiles and giggles and goes to bed with no fuss hugging her Ariel doll. She has definitely also added drama to our lives. GIRLS! :)

So at 18 months this sweet girl wakes up and quietly waits for her mom in her crib. Almost every morning I come in she has wet the bed! She is a drinker! After a quick change she heads to either Dads bed or Hayden's bed for good morning kisses and spanks (really into love spanks, who taught her that???)

She has kinda slowed down on eating the entire house for breakfast. Just a bowl of oatmeal and maybe a little cereal will fill that belly. We have a little table that I used to let the kids eat all there meals on, but Hadley is such a social bug that she would take a couple bites and than wonder around visiting mom and dad, so under much protest from brother everyone now eats at the big table so Miss Hadley can be strapped down for the duration of the meal.

It is amazing how quick your second child catches on to things. Things have been a lot different with Hadley. She talks like mad. Using new words everyday and talking in phrases. Most common , "I want drink, thank you, spank, spank, spank and yuck potty" She is an awesome communicator and always worries about others. More than just in love with her thumb and blankets. My sister in law sent me some stuff to put on her thumb to help stop the sucking. She kept saying "huh, yucky" and showing me her thumb but she had it sucked off within about 30 seconds. We will keep trying....

She struggles with the flash of the camera in all her pictures, promise she is mostly smiles. This pictures shows our matching eyes. Same hazel green color. She enjoys helping me put make up on and gets to wear lipstick when she wants. Brushes her hair and put on all my bracelets and necklaces.

She is a very good singer and sings the alphabet better than Hayden. She get up on the stool and helps me cook dinner almost every night. She is so interested in everything. Including the potty. If Hayden pee's outside, Hadley tries to take off her pants so she can do the same. She sits on the potty multiple times a day on her own and grabs her diaper and says "poop" when she went to the bathroom. Very into clothes. Picks out not only her outfits but Hayden's as well. Loves stuff animals, Minnie being her favorite. I would have to say it is a tie between the alligator and giraffe as a favorite animal.

I wanted to take a bunch of pictures on Sunday, but she was up coughing some of the night and woke up with a mild cold. ( I think this is only her 2nd cold she has had at home, it is always in Utah this girl gets sick!) So after a good sleep-in Sunday we didn't have much time before church. So just a couple pics with runny noses. We have had a couple rough evening, but after I realized it was her teeth and drugged her up she returned to fairly normal Hadley. At her Dr appointment she was at 27 1/2 lbs and 34 inches. Dr said that she will be looking down to her momma when she grows up! She definitely has my side of the family genes with her love of food, carbs and sweets. I love having more girl power in our home even when it comes with a little drama! She gets along so well with any kids and is best friends with her brother. This girl brings so much happiness to our home. Even though it seems weird that she has hit 18 months, she is so mature for her age and seems older to me. I often get comments from strangers asking if Hayden and Hadley are twins. Dan and I have really loved all the moments this girl has given us the last 18 months! ")

Florida 4th and 3rd

So we started the celebrations on the 3rd because I wanted to have a fun little get together with friends but I also wanted to take the kids to there first fire works show. We had a house full of people and kids running around like mad. It was on Sunday, so even though my kids had naps they were still a little on the cranky side. But they still managed fairly well. I took a total of 3 pictures the whole night. But we had PLENTY of fireworks and food and wonderful company.

Even the younger kids did pretty good with all the noisy fireworks. The little boys were all into it, helping the "men" by sorting out the fireworks and telling them which ones to light next.

It definitely was a chill-laxin evening and not too much on the humid side.

This was our actual 4th. Do you as a mother ever have these dreams of what your family will one day be...? As silly as this sounds I have always dreamed of being a wagon family! I have wanted a wagon for awhile to let my kids stroll around as we head to the park or lets say in this situation a parade. Well I made my dream come true! I found this very nice but broken wagon at a yard sale, purchased for 5 $ spend 6 $ replacing the bent axle in both front wheels. So in total my wagon cost me 18 $ and some work from my sexy handy man, Dr. D! I love it, the kids love it, Dan thinks I nutzO. But I am happy, so he is happy :)

The parade did not disappoint. Very slim on the parade goers which made it a blast for the kiddos no competition for the candy. They had a TON! I let them have at if for a couple days before helping it disappear into the trash (maybe mom was having at it to much!)

Hayden commentated the entire parade, while miss Hadley waved and bugged mom to open the candy faster. It rained right before the parade and really cooled things off, but about 15 minutes in the humidity kicked up ten fold and we were all sweating bullets. But because of my handy dandy wagon, mom fit plenty of water to help support this fine family of four!

Thank you, thank you, thank you, grandma Lou. This was a huge hit. We have this little ditch on the side of the house that was perfect for the slip and slide. I only wish we had secondary water so we could play with it daily!

Later at the firework show, Hadley was showing off all her moves. This girl gets low! But as soon as she started attracting people and was getting standing ovations she was outty!

This is what we have been "up" to.

Playing at the park waiting for the fireworks.

There were plenty of people at the park, just a few miles from the house. But Dan scouted us out the perfect spot with hardly anyone around and perfect view of the main event and all the other little firework displays around the city. Hayden loved it. Hadley.... well she sat still for about 5 min before she thought it was time to torture mom with loves and open mouth kisses and horsey rides. It was a blast, and even a little romantic for Dan and I. It's been a while since we had our blankets out at a real firework show. It was for the most part a perfect day, and a great weekend! The kids don't really understand at all the concept of the day, besides America's birthday. But they love to wave their flags around and scream "America!"

St. Augustine

We took a much needed family trip up north to St. Augustine at the end of June. It was a 4 hour ride and the kids got a little restless but it wasn't to bad. We had a blast, there are so many things to do in this historic town. It is the oldest city in the nation that is still in its original state. They have just made the place into this huge (yet quite) tourist town. Most popular are the forts that still stand today. We hit up Castillo De San Marcos first. Huge fort and very interesting all sorts of rooms and hidden rooms inside rooms.

This picture makes the fort look so small, but it is hidden by a hill which made it very hard to be hit by enemy targets. One time while under attack the whole city lived within these walls for 100 something days.

Girl loves her some guns!

This was one of the small draw bridges. The place was once surrounded by a river of water for protection.

One of the many look out spots.

A hidden room, kinda creepy!!! OOOOOO!

Check out that gun show.

Can you tell how hot it is? Even though you kinda get used to the heat, you still sweat like mad.

They had an old school cannon demonstration. Hayden freaked out a little after they shot it off, so the rest of the trip I teased him about it. He would just say "yeah mom, I cried."

Another fort was kinda fun trip where you get to ride a boat across the river to this tiny little fort and only 4 soldiers lived there. You had to use ladders to get up to the top. Kinda a quite place. In 80 years of service only 2 warning shots were fired.

Everything is so historic, look how gorgeous this place is. They have an old gigantic hotel that is now a college.

We took a city walk tour at night, it was nice and relaxing the guy in the green was our tour guide. He keep us entertained!

And the stroller kept the kids entertained.

The pirate museum is a must do for kids. Disney had there hand in helping putting it together. You can't take pictures inside, but was very well put together.

Someone went to the naughty chair! :)

Lots of yummy food and treats. If you head out there you must hit up this Popsicle place called hippo. Oh I am still craving there yummy pina colda Popsicle. We also ate some unbelievable gyros and burrito joint.

Touch a Truck

At the end of June one of the city's close to us had a touch a truck day. I swear most weekends we can find something fun to do at one of our surrounding city's! We got there early but it still got hot fast. It was pretty awesome, they pretty much let the kids have free range of all sorts of cars. There was an Ambulance, fire trucks, cop cars, tractors, jeeps, semi trucks, garbage trucks, cranes, buses and military vehicles of all sorts. They helped you jump on in and honk the horn and explore around. The whole family enjoyed it.

Aren't all little boys overly fascinated with garage trucks?

So this was Hayden first time on a bus, it was kinda rough getting him to move on to the other wondrous things because he was pretty stoked.

Chill-lax-in for 5 seconds, this girl does not slow down for very long.

Driving the bus

Sitting in the ambulance. It was so warm that they actually had the fire hose running on the fire truck to let the kids run in to cool off.

A couple of the tractors you could actually have a guide help you navigate the controls. This is Hayden on the crane, putting the big ball into a garbage can. As you can tell pretty serious stuff!

This is the back of one of the Military trucks. I was so glad we went early not only because it was a tad bit cooler but it also got really busy. By the time we left the place was swamped. But we will totally hit this up again next year.