Little Miss Independence

     I may have mentioned once or twice that Kelsey is a really independent child.  She was so mad at me at lunch today.  She really wanted to make her own lunch and I preferred that she stay out of the kitchen and let me make her lunch for her.  She has suddenly been wanting to prepare her own food ever since watching me use the toaster a few times and deciding that it didn't look all that hard to use.  She has made herself toast a couple of times since then but that's about it.  She wouldn't tell me what she wanted for lunch and she was getting pretty upset that I wouldn't just let her do it herself.  I really wanted to take a nap but I was concerned about what she would do once I fell asleep.
     I was right to be worried.  I went into my room to lay down but decided to watch some TV on the laptop first.  I heard her come into the bedroom so I closed my eyes to make it look like I had fallen asleep in front of the computer.  I left just a slit open so I could see what she was doing.  She came in, looked at me, then went right back out.  Almost immediately I could hear sounds in the kitchen.  The fridge opening and closing, getting a glass plate out of the cupboard, the microwave opening and closing and then turning off and on.  Finally all was quiet and my curiosity got the best of me.  I called out to her and told her to come into my room.  In she came, carrying a half-eaten, very well-made quesadilla.  She did a pretty good job making her own lunch.  I was actually pretty surprised to find out that she knew how to use the microwave.
      When I got up from my nap, I noticed that the microwave had like 10 minutes left on it.  I guess she just punched in a bunch of numbers and then hit start and stop over and over again until the cheese was melted.  Not too bad for a recently turned 4 year old.

P.S.  Last night (after I wrote this post) I had a dream that Kelsey drove off in my car.  I think I'm feeling a little concerned about all this independence. :)

*Cute Nate

     As you can probably tell, I am trying to really focus on catching up on my blogging.  Especially now that we have a new, faster laptop and cable internet.  It definitely makes uploading pictures SO much faster!
     This is a cute picture I found of Nate from December 4, 2011.  He decided to sit and eat his breakfast using the stool as a makeshift little table.  This little guy is just too adorable for words.

*Haylee's Baptism

(I know, I know, this one is a little late seeing how Haylee is 9 now!)

Haylee got baptized on April 30, 2011.  It was a very special day and she was blessed to have lots of friends and family come to her baptism.
Pictures with her daddy who baptized her, of course.

Being a little silly! :)

Haylee with her friends. (L-R: Bryce Hill, Grace Cannon, Haylee, Jenna Pennix, and Hyrum Whitmer)

Haylee and Mom

Cousins Audrey and Ally Moffitt and Natalee with the baptism girl.

Galen Ratliff got baptized the same day and is also in Haylee's primary class.

After she got baptized, she changed into her beautiful white dress and put the pearl hairpins in her hair that she got from Grandma Bobbi.

L-R: Grandma Bobbi, Haylee, Grandma Moffitt

Haylee and Grandma Poetschlag

Congratulations Haylee on taking your first step back to Heavenly Father!  We love you so much!

*My Fashionista

March 24, 2011

     On our way to Valencia to go see Beauty and the Beast, Natalee rode with my mom.  They stopped at the mall on their way there.  I had a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $10 or more for JC Penney so I gave it to Natalee to take.  She was so excited to get this shirt with her coupon.  Natalee definitely loves cute clothes and she likes to layer her clothes in different ways to make her own style.

Something We Both Like

Today while Nathan was taking a nap, Kelsey and I sat down to watch something on Netflix together.  Kelsey's only stipulation was that it be something we both like.  I suggested "Knight Rider."  She hates that show.  She poo-pooed a few other suggestions reminding me, "We have to BOTH like it!  Hey, how about that one?!"  She was pointing to a Leap Frog video.  I resisted the temptation to remind her about her rule and I said, "Okay."  Watching a Leap Frog show was worth it to see the huge grin on Kelsey's face as we sat down together to watch a show that 'we both like.'

Dear Tooth Fairy....

     A couple of days ago Daren had to teach seminary.  He left early in the morning while we were all still sound asleep.  When he got home, he found the following note on the doorstep:

If you can't read it too well in the picture, it says:

Front: From Mackenzie

       To The Tooth Fairy

Inside:

(top, right corner says "Mackenzie rae Hardy")

Dear tooth Fairy

I would like to meet you very very very much.

I am 7 years old.  My big sister Haylee said I could meet you wen I was 7.

Now she is saing I can't meet you.

Mackenzie does still believe in the tooth fairy.  She's wavering on the Easter Bunny but I think she's still a believer in Santa Clause too.  Daren and I thought this note she wrote was so adorable.  She had stayed up late writing in her journal the night before and I figured this was what she had been working on.  We were actually extremely impressed with her writing capabilities.  We knew Mackenzie was very smart but she's actually smarter than we thought!  She can spell hard words like, "would."  And her handwriting was quite neat too.

     Daren brought me the note with telling me it just had to go in the blog book.  The next day I walked out and found it on the doorstep again.  Apparently Mackenzie had found it in our bedroom and put it back out for the tooth fairy to find.

     Yesterday, Haylee asked me if I had seen the note Mackenzie wrote to the tooth fairy.  I said I had and she started to tell me all about it.  "I wrote it," she said.  "Mackenzie told me what to say and I wrote it down."  Well that explains the above grade-level spelling and handwriting!  It was still pretty cute though so it still gets blogged.

Big Boy Bed

     While we were living at Grandma's house (about a week after we moved in, actually), Nate learned to climb out of his port-a-crib.  We had to quickly buy him a mini-tent called a PeaPod that we could zip him into at night.  It only took him a few days to learn to undo the zipper, but since it had two zippers that came together we could safety pin the zippers together so he couldn't get out.  He only cried about it a few times and then he liked climbing into his PeaPod and even insisted on helping us zip it shut.  :)

     We finally moved into our new house a couple of weeks ago and we decided against setting up the crib.  After all, with Nate's climbing talents we were sure that he would be able to climb out.  We tried getting him to sleep in a big boy bed (the bottom bunk) but he just kept climbing up to the top bunk.  We removed the ladder but he still wouldn't stay in the bed.  So we set the PeaPod back up and he has been sleeping in there for the past couple of weeks.  Last night when I told him it was time for bed, he pointed at my bed and said, "nigh-nigh."  I laid him on the bed and he snuggled up and grinned.  But he didn't stay in there so I picked him up and started to carry him to his PeaPod.  He pointed at the bottom bunk instead so I laid him down and put the covers over him.  I told Haylee to let me know if he got out and I would put him in the PeaPod.  But he soundly slept on the bottom bunk all night long.

     This picture was taken at nap time today.  I packed up the PeaPod this morning and put him in the bed for naptime.  I had to put him back in about 3 more times and he cried each time.  But he finally stayed and I don't think it will take him more than a few days to adjust.  He is such a big boy!