Leah Hoskins Photography: Family Photo Session

Austin and I have had our picture taken every year, starting with our engagement pictures the year before we got married.  In 2009, the year Hadley was born, we had family pictures taken with her in my belly and then 3 months later with her in our arms.  Following with tradition, we had our family pictures taken today.  I was once again, very nervous.  Like I said before, Hadley does not like to have her picture taken...grr!  I knew we were in good hands though, because we had Leah Hoskins Photography taking our pictures.  I purchased a mini session in hopes that the shorter time would be more conducive to Hadley's behavior...and as you can see, my choice was perfect.  We love our pictures and we love Leah Hoskins Photography!

     

2011 Wabash Chili Cookoff

I went to my first chili cook off in Wabash when Hadley was two months old and I loved it!  I had to work last year, so when I saw that the cook off landed on my weekend off this year, I quickly made plans to go.  Austin's former co-worker, Carl, helps plan the event and always has a little get-together following. There was so much going on today though, that Austin and I decided to split up.  He met up with his friend Chris for a day of football watching, chili eating and then partying it up at Carl's house while Hadley and I met up with Aunt Lex and Cousins Gabe and Julianna for chili eating and playing!  It worked out well. 

Our crazy chili (and dorito) eating faces...

The girls did really well today.  They sat back in their strollers with chips and drinks in hand, taking in the crowd.

Hadley was so excited about her bulldog tattoo.  She showed it off to everyone all day long!

The kids needed something to eat other than chips, so after we left the chili cook off we headed over to McDonald's to get some solid food.  After eating, we let the kids play in the "PlayPlace".  Hadley was a little dare devil, making me VERY nervous.  She climbed all of the way to the top of the structure.  The only thing that stopped her from going down the biggest slide was the suspension bridge.  She did however go down the smaller slide over 10 times.  Crazy girl!   

Picture above: Heartattack right then and there...my little girl was too high for my liking, but she didn't seem to mind one bit!

Love these two pictures with the netting...

No more Wawa

Hadley has been saying "wawa" when she refers to water for several months now.  In fact, it was one of the first words that she really mastered and used correctly, well, if you can call it a word.  It was a "Hadley word", we'll say that.  As of today, I am sad to inform you that she no longer says "wawa".  Now it's a very clear and pronounced "water".  *sigh*  It's only the beginning folks, she's built so many memories for us already in her two short years of life...oh how bittersweet!   

Cousin Gabe's 6th Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Cousin Gabe's 6th birthday at Pizza Hut tonight with a small family party.  He likes to have his parties there for the pizza, and so does my sister, for the easy clean up!  Gabe had most of his cousins from each side of the family there tonight and he was having a great time.  He got lots of cool toys and lots of winter hats and gloves.

Hadley loves to eat at Pizza Hut.  She enjoyed it even more tonight because she got to eat beside her Great Great Aunt June and Cousin Julianna!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Gabe, Happy Birthday to you!

Hadley also got a very cute Hello Kitty hat and slippers from Aunt Melissa as a belated birthday gift since she couldn't make it to her party in August. 

   

Happy 6th Birthday, Gabe!

Four Word Sentences...

Hadley's vocabulary has been exploding, and she's ecstatic about it! I'm happy to say that she's quickly transitioned from using two or three word sentences about a month ago, and onto four plus words now. It's pretty easy to have a conversation with her, and her pronunciation is fabulous. I was a little worried because she was tongue-tied when she was born and it had the potential to inhibit her speech, but it seems as though the clipping we had done worked well. I love hearing my sweet little girl's voice!

"Come on mommy, let's go!"

Nottawa Fruit Farm

We decided to go to the Nottawa Fruit Farm in Michigan today, even though it was a little bit chilly outside. Now that I have every other weekend off, I've really been looking forward to being able to go to a pumpkin patch with Hadley on a Saturday this year...so that's exactly what we did! We invited Grandma Kim and Aunt Shelby to come along. I think we all had a great time hanging out and watching Hadley.

I love how Minnie Mouse was included in the hand holding!

Aunt Shelby, the horse whisperer...it was impressive to watch!

The pumpkin patch had quite a few activities set up at different stops along the hayride.  Hadley did really well, winning the "ring around the characters", catching a balloon in the air tent, braving the hay tunnel and digging out a dinosaur egg. 

Hadley never caught on to how to pedal the tractor, but we made it into "Santa's Station" anyways.  Yep, that's what was written above the door on the other side of the yellow mini barn. 

I love the lighting in the picture I took while we were walking through the corn maze.  You can definitely tell this is for little kids...a few random cut-out characters and lots of corn.

I was a little disappointed in the pumpkin patch today.  The Fashion Farm, that we went to last October, had an actual pumpkin patch that you could walk out into and pick out your pumpkin.  This one had them laying out in the grass.  Oh well, Hadley still enjoyed picking out a nice pretty big orange pumpkin!

So many to choose from...

...and the winner is: Hadley!  On the third and final spin in the "ring around the characters" game, Hadley won with Donald Duck.

They had an air tent set up in the barn and you had to try and catch a balloon.  Hadley was about the only one to catch one, and she was pretty upset when they made her give it back.  I guess they have a limited number of balloons!

They did give her a pretty cool spider ring though.

Aunt Shelby took Hadley through the hay maze and they both thought it was pretty neat.  Hadley especially liked getting to explore with a flashlight.

After the hay maze we went to little shelter where the kids got to throw a ping pong ball at fish bowls.  If the ball landed in a bowl, they would win a real fish. I was happy to know that Hadley probably wouldn't win, because I didn't want to take a fish home.   

Hadley and daddy went diggin' for dinosaur eggs.  Hadley found one right away!

...and the final leg of our pumpkin patch journey was painting pumpkins. 

Hadley had been eyeballing the white pumpkins all day, and she finally got one.  Grandma Kim helped her "paint" it while Aunt Shelby designed her bag.

Look at the concentration on her little face!  Those marker lids can be tough.

Voila!



"No pictures, mommy!"

I love fall and this was the perfect way to enjoy a beautiful fall day!