Birth Annoucements

I decided to combine Hadley's birth announcement with our Christmas card this year. Once again, Amanda came up with some great creations. These were my favorites!

Pictures

My friend, Amanda, took pictures of Liberty and Hadley 5 days after Hadley was born. It was great timing, because I wanted newborn pictures of Hadley and 2-year pictures for Liberty. They turned out super cute! Liberty wasn't all the cooperative during the pictures of the two girls together. She kept saying "too heavy" and would push little Hadley's head down to try to get her off her lap. They she'd say, "Uh-oh, fall down!" as if she wasn't purposely pushing her down. What a (cute) stinker! Oh, and by the way, I am not disclosing a few of my favorites, so they will be a surprise when we send out birth announcements/Christmas cards. Thanks, Amanda!

Christmas Lights & Santa

Liberty really enjoyed seeing Christmas lights this year. She loved driving down our street at night and seeing the lights, and was so proud that our house had "Miss-mas lights" on it. She also enjoyed seeing all the yard ornaments around town. One night we decided to walk around Val Vista Lakes and see their Christmas light display. To our surprise, Santa was there! Liberty got to see Santa (aka, "Ho, ho, ho), but didn't want to sit on his lap. She was willing to take a candy cane from him though. Afterwards (and for weeks following), she kept talking about how she didn't sit on Santa's lap, and only wanted to sit on Mom's lap. But, that next time she'd sit on Santa's lap. Unfortunately, she didn't get a second chance, because a couple of days before Christmas we went to see Santa at the mall, but didn't want to wait in the super long line. Fortunately for us, she was completely happy with waving at Santa, so we didn't have to wait in line! We learned our lesson, and next year we are visiting Santa on December 1st!

Catch-up

For those of you who are interested, I have been playing catch-up with my posts for the month of November. I post-dated them so they would show up chronologically, so scroll down through the beginning of November if you want to.

Today

Here is what Hadley has been up to today.

Dad was on-call last night, so he had today off. Liberty enjoyed lots of Daddy-Libby time today!

Hadley is here!

Although having a new baby seems like a legitimate excuse, I have been questioned as to when I am going to update our blog with our new addition to our family. So here is the condensed version, and I'll try to update as soon as I get a chance.

Hadley Eliza Wilkins arrived on Saturday, November 15th at 5:40 am. She weighed in at 7 lbs, 1.5 oz, and measured 20 inches long. The first thing I noticed were her big hands and long fingers! (With Liberty it was her big mouth and lips.) I like to see what I notice first with a new baby. Hadley's fingers are very long, and when fully open and spread, almost cover her entire face! Hopefully that means she'll be a good piano player, guitar player, or volleyball player - or all of the above! Hadley is a beautiful baby, and changes so much everyday! Of course, getting cuter and cuter each day. After the first day and a half we spent in the hospital, we thought we were going to have the most perfectly behaved baby ever. We definitely thought we deserved it after our "high-maintenance" baby Liberty. Hadley hardly even cried the first days, only when getting her diaper changes or bugged by the nurses. Her night in the hospital she slept wonderfully, and I had to wake her to feed her. Unfortunately, we took her home and she learned to cry loudly, and is not on her best behavior at night. Apparently, she doesn't care for her bed. Hopefully over the next week or so she'll get her nightimes figured out!

Liberty loves her "baby Hadley!" When she first came to see her at the hospital, after a few minutes of soaking it all in, Liberty was begging to hold her and talking in her baby talk to her. It was darling. One of the times Liberty came to visit us, we took a picture of Liberty holding Hadley. Then we wanted to have a family picture taken with me in my bed, so Trever brought Hadley over, while Liberty climbed up to sit by me. By the time Liberty was sitting by me, she was impatiently waiting for Hadley to sit on her lap again. She quickly said, "Trever! I want to hold Baby Hadley!" It was hilarious! Apparently she figured calling her dad "Trever" would get his attention the quickest. Liberty has been a great big sister, and is a good helper around the house. She has adjusted quite well, thankfully.

Here are a few pictures - I will post more later.

Sisters

There's nothing sweeter than seeing these two girls together. We're definitely looking forward to Hadley getting a little older so they can really play together. Liberty is always "helping" Hadley by giving her blankies, toys, and lots of kisses, and always wants to "hold her!"

Happy 2nd Birthday Liberty!

We had a little mini-celebration for Liberty on her actual birthday. Someone in the ward had brought us dinner, which included brownies. We put candles in the brownies and sang "Happy Birthday" to Liberty, and of course she blew out the candles. I'm sure she loved not having to compete with the other kids this time! She then proceeded to take each candle out one by one, and lick off the frosting. Once again, no competition. As she was finishing this, I said, "let's sing one more time." She quickly began putting the candles back into the brownies! I didn't actually mean with the candles and all, but of course we did! We lit the candles again, and sang one more time! She loved it again!

Later we had her open a present I had saved for her actual birthday. She loved the $5.00 teaset, and continues to play with it a lot.



As a sidenote, throughout the day I tried to tell Liberty it was her birthday today. It took a lot of convincing, because she kept saying, "No, it's Baby Hadley's birthday today." I think the cake and candles finally convinced her it was HER birthday.

We love our Liberty like crazy! She is such a smart, sweet, funny, beautiful, and loving little girl. She makes us laugh all the time, and brings so much love and happiness to our family and home. We couldn't imagine life without her! We're so thankful for her! We love you girl!

Last Chance

We decided to celebrate my last day of “freedom” before Baby Hadley comes with the girls and kids. Heather, Adam, Emily, Lucy, Huddy, Graham, Liberty and I all met at the San Tan Mall play area. Liberty and I got there a little before everyone, so we went to the puppy store, which Liberty absolutely loves. Then we let the kids play for awhile, and took turns doing a little shopping. Then we met Becky and Mom at Paradise Bakery for lunch. Then we all headed to Old Navy for a little shopping. Luckily, Mom was nice enough to help tame the kids for a little bit while we shopped. It was a great way to spend my last “free” day. Thanks girls!

As a little sidenote - I have a little story about something Liberty did while we were at this play area. You can see in the picture above, there were little wood chips in the landscaped area around the toys. Liberty and the kids were playing with them off and on, mostly just making piles or looking for big ones. Towards the end of our time there, I looked over at Liberty, and she had made a pile of wood chips on the little concrete walls. She was singing "happy birthday" to herself, and then blowing out the "candles" which were the wood chips. It was hilarious. She was totally serious about it, and was doing it all by herself, over and over. I love this girl!

Presents

For Liberty’s birthday she got a Strawberry Shortcake bike from the Nelson’s. She has been asking for a pink bike for a long time! I kept telling her “maybe for Christmas” so it was a fun surprise for her to get a bike for her birthday! When Trever was putting it together, Liberty was so anxious to ride it, she was getting very impatient. We even had to put it away for awhile because she was getting to feisty! She now loves riding it! She only needs to grow about an inch before she can really pedal herself.

I also found a Snow White dress for cheap after Halloween, so we gave that to her for her birthday. Just recently Liberty has been into “fancy dresses” (tutu’s) and “princess dresses.” And of course always has to wear her “princess” shoes too. She will dance and spin around and around.