Aida

Aida has the funniest little (actually big) personality.

The new addition to most of her nightly prayers is "Please bless Hailey and Aida to not go to sleep, and bless Mommy and Daddy to go to sleep."  You may think that she has simply confused her words, but if you saw the smile on her face after the first time she said it you would know that they are very deliberate.  She is hoping to party all night long with her sister while Mom and Dad sleep!

When Aida prays for baby Sophie she says "Bless Mommy to go to the doctor's so she can feel good and that the baby can come out and get clothes on at the doctor's office."  She is very concerned about the fact that Sophie is not wearing any clothes, and she want's to make sure that she has something to wear as soon as she arrives.

Aida made a new friend this week, her name is Lydia.  Aida was so excited to get to play at Lydia's house, she was waiting by the door ready to go when they came to pick her up.  Lydia's mom sent me a message not long after that to share how funny Aida is, here it is:
 "So I asked to Aida, "Are you allergic to anything?"  She answered, "Yes, I'm allergic to myself and my barbies." she is so cute!" 
It should be noted that Aida is in love with barbies, she plays with them all the time, and I have yet to notice an allergic reaction.

As I'm writing this Aida is in the living room in some imaginary world playing alone saying the funniest things. She just said "Welcome to my house, it's gorgeous, don't you love that it's decorated?"

I feel so lucky to be her mom and to have had so much time to spend alone with Aida.  I have been so lucky to have one on one time with both of the girls, I love them so much!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

Hailey's first tooth fell out at dinner, we never even knew it was loose...that's the way to loose a tooth.  This  one wasn't quite so easy, it's been really loose for a while, but just wouldn't fall out.  We were a little worried it would fall out while Hailey was sleeping, but she didn't want help getting it out.  Matt finally convinced her to let him pull it out if he gave her $1.  She was nervous, but she agreed.  those teeth are slippery....so Matt got out his trusty leatherman (Hailey was less than thrilled!)

I think Matt missed his true profession....pulling children's teeth.  This is how his face looked the majority of the time.

Her first permanant tooth is about half way in just in time for a new hole.

Sweet Hailey

Decorating the Tree

I learned that it takes a long time and a lot of patience to put lights on a 12' tree.

This is a sign of how tired I am these days.... a 6 and 3 year old up on a ladder decorating the tree

Aida was thrilled with my lack of energy!

Hailey has really become a great helper this year, she loves decorating for Holidays, and she is good at it.

Here is the final tree, keep in mind that my old tree was 6'-6" and I didn't buy anything  new, except the burlap, so it's a little sparse.

O Christmas Tree

This year Matt finally talked me into getting a real live Christmas tree.  He waited in line early one Saturday morning to get the permit to cut one down and I think it was well worth it.  Our truck started having some problems on the way up to Millhollow so we had to stop and choose one where we were.  There were some steep hills, but we all had a good time.

The girls loved exploring, looking for the perfect tree.  (which is harder than you might imagine)

They thought maybe one of these tiny trees would work.  Maybe...but our ceilings are 12 feet.

Hailey found that it was fun to slide down the hill and Aida soon followed.  Aida always wants to do what her big sister is doing, lucking Hailey is a good example (most of the time).

Of course the one we finally decided was down hill.  Matt was loving the chain saw.

Thankfully the tree fell without any problems.  It was pretty tricky getting it up the hill, but we finally made it and headed for home with a huge tree on top of the truck.

Fleece blankets

Last month the absolute saddest thing imaginable happened to some of our friends, their 4 year old daughter, Mia, went to live with Heavenly Father.  She was Aida's best friend, they had so much fun together, I'll post some pictures another day.  We organized a Relief Society activity to honor her memory, we made fleece blankets for Primary Children's Hospital.  It was such a beautiful thing to see the sisters come together to remember sweet sweet Mia.  There were about 40 sisters there and we did 50 blankets.  It was a great night.

I had all the blankets layed out to take a picture for Mimi, Mia's mom, and Hailey of course wanted to make one herself.

Here is her blanket in progress, luckily I had a small piece of fleece left over from a project a few years ago.

Hailey is going to be a great sewer/crafter some day following in the footsteps of most of the women on both sides of her family.

I'm letting go...a little

Hailey is posing in her new warm coat and gloves 

We live really close to the school, but I still like to walk Hailey to school just to make sure she makes it.  Most of the kids walk by themselves (the kindergardener across the street walks alone), and Hailey has been wanting to walk with friends.  I finally caved and let her start walking with our back door neighbor who is in 2nd grade and her little brother.  Hailey has loved her new found freedom.  I still watch them to the end of the street most days, but it has been nice to send her out the door without having to have Aida ready to go too.

Play time

The other day I brought up the girls Christmas Dresses, Aida Immediately put Hailey's on (Hailey was at school, Aida takes that opportunity to play with Hailey's things) and started playing in her kitchen.

She is making cookies.

Getting ready to frost them.  I am so grateful that I have had so much time alone with Aida.   I'm sure there are great benefits to having you kids close, but that's not how life turned out for me so I'm enjoying the benefits of have great alone time with each of my kids.  Aida will be four right after the baby is born and I have loved our alone time over the last 4 years.

Trick or Treating

They look less than thrilled in this picture, but believe me they really were excited.  This is costume #3 for Aida, Tinkerbell Witch who would have thought.

We went with some of our neighbors and had a great time.  After every house Aida would say "they gave us candy too."  She was thrilled.

Hailey loved trick or treating and didn't want to stop.  After we got home she waited outside to had candy out to any trick or treators, that was just as fun as getting the candy.  After everyone was in bed and the lights were out downstairs the doorbell rang with some late trick or treators and Hailey could not believe that we weren't jumping out of bed to give them candy.  

Halloween at School

Unlike Aida Hailey did not get to wear her costume to school, so we settled for this Halloween number and spider rings in her braids.

Hailey really is growing up.  She walks to and from school every day with some of her friends,  she loves being with friends.  The first thing she asks when she gets home is can she go play with someone, she is enjoying her new freedom.

Costume #2 Belle

Aida was so excited to be Belle for her second Halloween Party.

She is so sweet, focused on walking in her high heels.

The Library party was fun as they always are.

There was someone blowing Ghost Bubbles which you could catch if you had a glove on.

Nice milky white bubble, the trick, aparantly, is dawn water and dry ice.

Poof the ghost disappears.

They can even land on your head.

Aida has fallen in love with scissors, she loves to cut! 

What to be for Halloween

When Hailey was Aida's age she wanted to be a different thing every time we had a Halloween event.  This was Aida's year to try that trick.

For her first Halloween party she was Tinkerbell. 

What a sweet Tinkerbell